USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #4266- Charles C. Green, et al vs. the County School Board of New Kent County, Virginia, et al
| Creator | USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division |
| Description | Beginning in March 1965, this case made its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The question at hand was whether the New Kent County School Board’s adoption of a “freedom-of-choice” plan, allowing pupils to select their own public school, constituted full compliance of a court-ordered mandate to “achieve a system based on a non-racial bias.” The defendants continued to operate a segregated school system long after the Brown decision as a result of several Virginia statutes which were passed aiming to circumvent and/or actively resist that decision. Many of these statutes were later found to be unconstitutional. Under the Pupil Placement Act, not repealed until 1966, children were automatically reassigned to the school they had attended the previous year unless they submitted an application for transfer, then subsequently approved by the State Pupil Placement Board. Until September 1964, no black student had ever applied for admission to the County’s only white school, the New Kent School, and likewise a white student had never sought to attend the Watkins school, an all-black institution. After initially seeking a dismissal, five months after the suit was filed, in August 1965, the defendants adopted the aforementioned “freedom-of-choice” plan in order to remain eligible for federal financial aid. It was ultimately determined that this plan was inadequate. Since its inception, not a single white child chose to attend Watkins school, the black institution, and though 115 black students enrolled in the white, New Kent School, 85% of all black pupils remain in the all-black facility. This system, it was determined, was all too reminiscent of the dual system. The burden of desegregation here was unjustly placed on the students and parents of New Kent, not the School Board. The School Board was therefore ordered to draw up a new plan, requiring efficient zoning, which would promptly end the effectively dual system in operation. The District Court was charged with approving the forthcoming plan. |
| Call number | Civil Action Case #4266 |
| Date from | 1965 |
| Date to | 1972 |
| Geographic school | New Kent County, VA |
| Size | unknown |
| 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 Public schools o School children o School integration o Segregation in education o Topeka (Kan.). Board of Education–Trials, litigation, etc. o United States. Supreme Court o United States. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) o Virginia. Pupil Placement Board |
| Types | o Correspondence
o Legal documents o Pamphlets |