Resources for Research on the Desegregation of Virginia Schools

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USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3554- Renee Patrice Gilliam vs. School Board of the City of Hopewell, Virginia, et al 

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3554- Renee Patrice Gilliam vs. School Board of the City of Hopewell, Virginia, et al 

Creator USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division
Description As of fall 1971, the defendant had achieved a desegregated school system as it pertained to its student body’s racial composition; school assignment was based on geographic criteria solely. The question arose over whether the newly desegregated school, located far from predominately black neighborhoods, made it more difficult for these students to attend school. The necessity and availability of the District’s partially-subsidized transportation system came into question. The defendant claimed that attendance had not been affected by this alleged issue and that they fully complied with the court-mandated desegregation plan. The plaintiff argued that the defense bears the burden of ensuring that the newly integrated students have every opportunity to receive an education. Any student who lives an excess of one mile from the school they attend ought to be provided free transportation, the plaintiff argued. In referencing other cases, as the defense provided no estimates of their own, the Court deemed that the financial burden of $54.60/student/yr. for school bus riders was not excessive for the District, which boasted a $4 million budget that year. The District was forced to provide free busing.
Call number Civil Action Case #3554
Date from 1962
Date to 1973
Geographic school Prince George 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    Busing for school integration

o    Public schools

o    School children

o    School integration

o    United States. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)
Types o    Correspondence

o    Legal documents

o    Reports
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USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #4265- Shirlette L. Bowman, et al vs. the County School Board of Charles City County, Virginia, et al 

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #4265- Shirlette L. Bowman, et al vs. the County School Board of Charles City County, Virginia, et al 

Creator USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division
Description The black plaintiffs in this 1965 case have taken issue with Charles City County’s “freedom of choice” plan, alleging that it deprived them of their constitutional rights. Under the plan, each pupil is supposed to have the “unrestricted right” to attend any school in the system they desired. It is however the “compulsive assignments to achieve a greater inter-mixture of the races, notwithstanding their individual choices,” which is their due, where the issue lies. The persistent necessity of submitting paperwork each year in order to attend a school of the pupils choosing was seen to be very different than the school itself harnessing the responsibility for altering this unconstitutional system. The obstacles in the path of the pupils inhibit the unadulterated “freedom of choice,” which is supposed to be enjoyed. After moving back and forth between the District and Appeals Court four times, it was ruled that 1) all teachers, included those currently employed by the County, would be reassigned as to not take into account their races nor the races of their students. 2) Immediately prior to the summer registration period for the 1966-67 school terms, students would have an opportunity to exercise their “freedom of choice.” 3) The aforementioned school selection is meant to be the only one of its sort or a one-time occurrence not to be repeated.
Call number Civil Action Case #4265
Date from 1965
Date to 1973
Geographic school Charles City 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    United States. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)
Types o    Correspondence

o    Legal documents
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USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3438- John W. Scott, Jr., etc., et al vs. School Board of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia, et al 

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3438- John W. Scott, Jr., etc., et al vs. School Board of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia, et al 

Creator USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division
Description The plaintiffs in this case sought admission to a predominately white school, complying with the administrative requirements of Virginia’s statutes as they pertained to the placement of pupils. The applications were denied by the Pupil Placement Board and the plaintiffs subsequently assigned to a local all-black high school. Lack of academic qualifications and the distance from residence to school were cited as the grounds for the denial. The movement is for the Court to intervene. The city has one white high school and one black high school. The State Pupil Placement Board had to date already placed nine black students into predominately white public schools. The Court ruled that “scholastic tests and residential requirements may be a proper basis for the assignment of pupils, but these criteria must be applied equally to white and Negro children;” white students were admitted the City’s only white high school, James Monroe School, without being subject to the same “tests” as their African-American counterparts. The Court will intervene and grant the requested general injunction.
Call number Civil Action Case #3438
Date from 1962
Date to 1973
Geographic school Fredericksburg, 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
Types o    Correspondence

o    Legal documents
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USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #4267- Jonathan W. Brown, et al vs. the County School Board of Middlesex County, Virginia, et al 

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #4267- Jonathan W. Brown, et al vs. the County School Board of Middlesex County, Virginia, et al 

Creator USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division
Description After just over a year in court, on June 10, 1966, the Court accepted the School Board of Middlesex County’s plan for the desegregation of their public schools. The cornerstone of the strategy was an annual “freedom-of-choice” offered to all grades, beginning in the 1966-67 school year. The choice, as outlined in the defendant’s supplemental report, was granted to parents and guardians, not the children directly. Furthermore, teachers, principals, or any other school staff member were barred from providing advice, recommendations, or otherwise influencing the choices of students. Their choices were not to be favored or penalized in any way either. Each parent is, the record states, supposed to receive an annual letter from their pupil’s school with a form attached so that they may read the provisions of the plan in question and submit their choice for their child’s ” schooling. There are similar procedures outlined for children enrolling into the district for the first time and/or transferring from other schools. The only reason that the parents” choice of school may be denied is for overcrowding, no other factors including prior attendance at the chosen school may be taken into account. Additionally, transportation was to be provided for all students without regard to race. Staff will be assigned from this point forward without consideration of their race or the race of their students. There is however some degree of uncertainty regarding the reappointment of already hired personnel to new schools without regard to the race of their new students. Published reports of this plan were to be made public to the general population at large.
Call number Civil Action Case #4267
Date from 1965
Date to 1973
Geographic school Middlesex 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    School integration

o    Segregation in education
Types o    Correspondence

o    Legal documents

o    Organizational Records

o    Pamphlets
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USDC, Western District of Virginia, Lynchburg Division, Civil Action Case #66-C-10-L-Sweet Briar Institute vs. Button et al 

USDC, Western District of Virginia, Lynchburg Division, Civil Action Case #66-C-10-L-Sweet Briar Institute vs. Button et al 

Creator USDC, Western District of Virginia, Lynchburg Division
Description In 1966, Sweet Briar Institute, a women’s college founded in 1901 in Amherst, Virginia, matriculated its first African-American student. The Attorney General of the State of Virginia and the Commonwealth Attorney for Amherst County Virginia filed an injunction against Sweet Briar Institute, claiming that the Institute was in violation of the Will of Indiana Fletcher Williams. The Will, probated in 1901, bequeathed the land for the establishment of Sweet Briar Institute on the condition that only white females be admitted as students. In April 1966, Sweet Briar Institute filed suit in the Amherst County Court and in the U.S. District Court in Lynchburg asking that a restraining order against the state injunction be issued. Sweet Briar argued that the State and County’s enforcement of the racially restrictive provisions of the Will was harmful to Sweet Briar’s ability to attract top-quality faculty and students to the college and to receive federal education grants. The District Court promptly issued the restraining order. The defendants appealed the restraining order and asked that the case be heard before a three-judge panel. In July 1966 the case was argued before the three-judge panel in Charlottesville. The plaintiffs asked the panel to uphold the district court’s restraining order. The defendants requested that as long as the case was still pending in the Amherst County Court that the Federal court abstain from ruling on the restraining order until the county case was concluded. In December 1966, the three-judge panel ruled against Sweet Briar Institute by deciding to abstain from intervening against the injunction filed by the State of Virginia and Amherst County against Sweet Briar Institute. Sweet Briar Institute appealed this ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in May 1967 overturned the decision of the three-judge panel and ordered that the District Court’s restraining order against the State of Virginia and Amherst County be enforced; which was done by the District Court in July 1967.
Call number Civil Action Case #66-C-10-L
Date from 1966
Date to 1967
Geographic school Amherst, VA
Size unknown
Access restrictions yes/no no
Access restrictions
Part Of larger collection yes/no 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    Private schools

o    School integration

o    Segregation in higher education

o    United States. Supreme Court

o    Virginia. Supreme Court of Appeals

o    Sweet Briar College

o    Wills–Virginia–Amherst County

o    District courts–Virginia
Types Legal documents
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USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case # 1333-Davis et al vs. County School Board of Prince Edward County 

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case # 1333-Davis et al vs. County School Board of Prince Edward County 

Creator USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division
Description The Dorothy Davis case raised the issue of equality between the county’s white and non-white schools. Prince Edward County, Virginia, had three high schools at the time: the whites-only Farmville and Worsham high schools, and the blacks-only Moton High School. As demonstrated by testimony and photographs, the educational facilities and courses were decidedly not equal. When the U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the defendants, the plaintiffs appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Eventually, the Dorothy Davis case became one of the five cases decided by the United States Supreme Court under the name of Brown v. Board of Education. Having decided in Brown that the separate but equal doctrine laid out in previous decisions was no longer valid, the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of all public school districts. However, the decree from the United States District Court allowed Prince Edward County to continue operating as before until a statewide desegregation policy was established. Like so many other school districts, Prince Edward County fought the Supreme Court decision. Their tactics were unorthodox – rather than desegregate the school system, they simply closed the public schools. A private school, funded with vouchers from the County School Board, was founded which accepted only the white children of the county. The Davis case was resurrected first as Eva Allen v. the County School Board and later as Cocheyse J. Griffin v. the County School Board in order to force Prince Edward County to reopen the public schools and follow the original mandate of the Supreme Court. Finally, in 1964 the Supreme Court ruled that the county was required to provide public education to all children. Appeals of this case were filed in RG 276, Records of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit Case Files # 7829, 8837, 9597 and 10,191.
Call number Civil Action Case # 1333
Date from 1951
Date to 1964
Geographic school Prince Edward County, VA
Size unknown
Access restrictions yes/no 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    High school students

o    Public schools

o    School closings

o    School integration–Massive resistance movement

o    Segregation in education

o    Topeka (Kan.). Board of Education–Trials, litigation, etc.

o    District courts–Virginia

o    United States. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

o    Prince Edward County (Va.). County School Board–Trials, litigation, etc.
Types Legal documents
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USDC, Western District of Virginia, Charlottesville, Civil Action Case #30: Gregory Hayes Swanson v. The Rector and the Visitors of the University of Virginia 

USDC, Western District of Virginia, Charlottesville, Civil Action Case #30: Gregory Hayes Swanson v. The Rector and the Visitors of the University of Virginia 

Creator USDC, Western District of Virginia, Charlottesville
Description In the summer of 1950, an African American lawyer named Gregory Swanson applied to take additional graduate courses at the University of Virginia’s Law School. Swanson had graduated from the Howard Law School and was seeking to take graduate courses at the University of Virginia. However, when Swanson applied to the school, his application was denied because of his race. At the time, Virginia’s higher education segregation laws did not permit African Americans from entering a white school. As a result, Swanson “with the help of Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston” took the case to the Western District Court of Virginia. During the Court’s proceedings, Swanson pointed out that he would have been accepted to the school had he been a white with the same qualifications. During the trial, Swanson told the court that he was merely trying to exercise his legal right to freedom of discrimination. While the segregation laws of Virginia were designed to prevent blacks from entering schools of higher education, the laws clearly had a bigger enemy than Swanson: the United States Constitution. The 14th Amendment states that, “No state can make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” Furthermore, Swanson’s legal team brought to light two other desegregation cases in their arguments. Pearson v. Murray stated that the state cannot undertake the function of education in law, and that no person may be omitted from education because of skin color. The case also stated that students must be offered equal treatment and be admitted to the school provided. The second case, “Sweatt v. Painter”, took place in Texas. The court’s ruling backed Swanson’s argument by saying that “We hold that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that the petitioner be admitted to the University of Texas Law School.” In reaching the final decision, the three US Circuit judges agreed that Swanson was denied entry in to the University of Virginia Law School solely because he was a member of the “Negro Race”. The judges went on to say that Swanson possessed all of the scholastic and moral qualifications necessary for him to be accepted into the Law School. By use of the 14th Amendment, Swanson and his legal team were able to break down the race barriers that were designed to keep African-Americans out of Virginia higher educational facilities. This landmark decision by the Western District of Virginia successfully concluded that no person could be held back from a higher education exclusively because of their race or skin color.
Call number Civil Action Case #30
Date from 1950
Date to 1960
Geographic school Charlottesville, VA
Size unknown
Access restrictions yes/no 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    Public schools

o    Segregation in higher education

o    District courts–Virginia

o    Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993

o    Houston, Charles Hamilton, 1895-1950

o    University of Virginia. School of Law

o    University of Texas. School of Law

o    Howard University. School of Law
Types Legal documents
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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 

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
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USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case # 4266: Charles C. Green et al. v. County School Board of New Kent County (VA) 

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case # 4266: Charles C. Green et al. v. County School Board of New Kent County (VA) 

Creator USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division
Description On March 15, 1965, the parents of Charles C. Green and 35 other plaintiffs filed suit in U.S. District Court alleging that the County School Board of New Kent County (VA) had failed to properly desegregate the student population and faculty of the New Kent County school system. The plaintiffs were petitioning the court to order the New Kent County school board to comply with Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court rulings and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legislation. The case was tried in May 1966 and a plan for the desegregation of the New Kent County school system was submitted by the School Board. The plan called for all families to have the “freedom-of-choice” to send their children to whatever school they desired. The District Court approved this plan in June 1966. The plaintiffs appealed this ruling to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, stating the desegregation plan did not properly achieve true racial integration. The plaintiffs stated that whereas African-American students could choose to attend the formerly all-white New Kent County school, white students were refusing to attend the formerly all African-American George Watkins school thus making the latter school a racially segregated educational facility. The Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the District Court’s approval of the school board’s “Freedom-of-Choice” plan whereupon the plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in May 1968 that the “Freedom-of-choice” plan failed to meet the standard of school desegregation. The Supreme Court vacated the District Court and Circuit Court’s approval of the “freedom-of-choice” plan and ordered the District Court to order the New Kent County School Board to come up with a new plan. In August 1968 the District Court ordered that the New Kent County school board adopt a plan for integrating its schools and that each school’s student body have a minimum of 25% minority representation. The Green case is important because it set a judicial precedent used by other federal district courts in the 1970s in mandating busing and other desegregation actions in order to achieve a truly non-racial system of public education in America.
Call number Civil Action Case # 4266
Date from 1965
Date to 1968
Geographic school New Kent County, VA
Size unknown
Access restrictions yes/no 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    Busing for school integration

o    Public schools

o    School children

o    School integration

o    Segregation in education

o

o    District courts–Virginia

o    Public schools–Virginia–New Kent County

o    United States. Circuit Courts

o    Civil Rights Act of 1964

o    Topeka (Kan.). Board of Education–Trials, litigation, etc.
Types Legal documents
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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 

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