USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3766- Avis M. Pettaway, et al vs. the County School Board of Surry County, Virginia, et al
| Creator | USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division |
| Description | In the years up to and including the 1962-63 school year, Surry County boasted a traditional dual schooling system. With three schools in the District, Surry had one attended, taught and administered solely by whites and the other, conversely, solely by blacks. Each race was afforded their own buses, ensuring that no white and black pupils shared transportation. In May and later in June 1963, the Surry County School Board received numerous applications from African-American students desiring placement in the Surry School, the counties exclusively white school. After some delay on the School Board’s part, the applications were forwarded to the State Pupil Placement Board, where each of the seven black applicants was granted admission to the Surry School. After this news broke, there were a series of mass meetings, in which white citizens voiced their alarm. At these meetings, attended by the County Supervisors and School Board, it was decided that a private school was to be organized, the public schools remain open and all public school teacher’s contracts terminated within the month. There was even talk of lowering taxes because of the decreased burden on the public school system. Shortly thereafter, all of the white pupils attending Surrey School, 431 in all, withdrew and enrolled in the new Foundation’s School. The black pupils, who had been assigned to the now deserted Surry School by the Pupil Placement Board, in turn too applied to the Foundation’s School and were all denied admission. Enrollment was by invitation only; every white child who applied got in and every black did not. The tuition for this new school was $375 for elementary school and $380 for high school. The State and County provided students a combined $250 for elementary school children and $275 for high school ones through grants. The remainder was to be afforded by the families. In late July, the Foundation President requested that the Superintendent of Schools release all the County’s teachers from their contracts, he declined to do so. By August, the Superintendent presented the School Board with the resignations of 17 of the 23 teachers he had on staff. The Board told the Superintendent to accept the remainder of resignations as they came in. The decision to close the Surry School was official. The operating budget for the County public school program was reduced from $37,000 to $26,000 for the month of September. All of the teachers who resigned later found themselves under the employment of the Foundation. Surplus buses were sold off by the County to a dealer, but were later purchased by the Foundation to provide its student body adequate transportation. As a result of the loss of teachers, the students in black classrooms sky-rocketed to over fifty per class in most cases. Previously, the School Board was operating under a prescribed 30 teachers per elementary school student and 23 per high school student formula. After the case was appealed to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals three times, it was ultimately ruled in Richmond District Court that the Foundation’s School, along with any and all individuals associated with it, were barred from processing or approving applications and paying any further grants with public funds, so long as the school “refuses to accept pupil’s on account of their race or color.” Basically, the private school could not accept any more students and the students it already had would receive no more subsidies for their education so long as the admission process remained racist. Additionally, the Court ordered reasonable attorney’s fees for the plaintiffs were to be paid by the defense. |
| Call number | Civil Action Case #3766 |
| Date from | 1963 |
| Date to | 1973 |
| Geographic school | Surry County, VA |
| Size | 1 Box |
| Access restrictions yes/no | |
| Access restrictions | |
| Part Of larger collection yes/no | |
| Larger collection title | |
| URL | |
| Repository | NARA Mid-Atlantic Region |
| Repository address | 14700 Townsend Road, Philadelphia, PA 19154-1096 |
| Repository contact name | David Weber |
| Repository contact title | Director, Records Management Program |
| Repository contact email | philadelphia.reference@nara.gov |
| Repository contact phone | (215) 305-2000 |
| DoveRegion | (outside of Virginia) |
| Subjects | o African American students
o African Americans–Civil rights o African Americans–Segregation o Private schools o Public schools o School children o School closings o School integration o School integration–Massive resistance movement o Segregation in education o Public grants for private schools o United States. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) o Public schools–Virginia–Surry County o Virginia. Pupil Placement Board |
| Types | o Correspondence
o Legal documents |