Pulaski County School Board Minutes

Pulaski County School Board Minutes

Creator Pulaski County School Board
Description The Pulaski County School Board had, prior to 1954, received legal challenges from African American families wishing to improve the quality of education provided to their children. A 1939 petition demanding “equal school facilities to those enjoyed by white pupils” resulted in Pulaski County agreeing to pay tuition and provide bus transportation for the county’s Negro high school students to attend Christiansburg Industrial Institute a Quaker-founded black high school in nearby Montgomery County. Thus, in 1954 Pulaski County blacks went to segregated elementary schools and to high school at Christiansburg Industrial Institute (CII).
By this time CII was the “public” black high school for three school districts: Pulaski County, Montgomery County, and the City of Radford. CII was governed by a Control Board consisting of three representatives of each district, and these districts contributed financially to the maintenance of the Institute. Pulaski County School Board minute books therefore contain frequent reference to CII.
The 1954 Supreme Court decision abolishing segregated schools was ignored in Pulaski just as in most of Virginia. However, in 1956 six “Negro patrons of Pulaski County” requested that their children attend the nearest school regardless of race, color or creed. In December of that same year the State of Virginia created the Pupil Placement Board which assumed the power of enrollment for all Virginia public schools. The Pupil Placement Board denied this petition and subsequent requests from 18 CII pupils for transfer to Pulaski High School. Attorneys for the 18 students filed an appeal in Federal court and on April 21, 1960 a Federal judge declared that 14 of the 18 students could transfer to Pulaski High School that September. The remaining 4, along with CII students seeking transfer in the future, could transfer beginning the following year. Hence, partial desegregation in Pulaski County occurred well before the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Board minutes for the period 1953 to 1967 trace the legally mandated but peaceful desegregation of Pulaski County Schools, the county’s financial contributions to and occasional commentary about Christiansburg Industrial Institute, issues concerning Pulaski’s black elementary schools (Calfee Training School and Wm. Gresham School) and their teachers, and the preparations for partial, then full desegregation. By 1967 neither the county’s black elementary schools nor CII existed. The minutes for that year also describe the disposition of CII’s assets.
Call number None
Date from January 1953
Date to December 1967
Geographic school Pulaski (Virginia) County Schools
Size .4 linear feet
Access restrictions yes/no None
Access restrictions None
Part Of larger collection yes/no
Larger collection title
URL None
Repository Pulaski County Schools
Repository address 202 N. Washington St., Pulaski, VA 24301
Repository contact name Brenda Crawford
Repository contact title
Repository contact email
Repository contact phone 540 994-2519
DoveRegion Region 1
Subjects

o African Americans–Civil rights
o African American students
o African Americans–Segregation
o Public schools
o Race relations
o School children
o School closings
o School integration
o School integration–Massive resistance movement
o Segregation in education
o Christianburg Industrial Academy
o Public schools–Virginia — Pulaski County, VA
Types meeting minutes

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3431- Sheila Jane McLeod, et al vs. the County School Board of Chesterfield County, Virginia, et al 

USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3431- Sheila Jane McLeod, et al vs. the County School Board of Chesterfield County, Virginia, et al 

Creator USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division
Description In early 1962, fifteen African-American students filed a class action suit seeking to require their transfer from Negro public schools to white public schools. The plaintiffs alleged that race was the sole factor requiring their attendance at a black school and white students to attend a white school, conversely. On or about December 20, 1961, the Superintendent of Schools notified the infant plaintiff’s parents that their respective children would be transferred to the Dupuy Road School, effective January 2, 1962, not the Ettrick Elementary School as requested. No hearing or forum to redress grievances was made availed to them. The Pupil Placement Board denied the charges against them after the School Board sought to shift responsibility onto it, alleging that overcrowding coupled with a mid-year transfer to a newly constructed facility was to blame; the transfer was said to have been made without prejudice. The Court found that Chesterfield County was an area experiencing “rapid population growth,” possessing ten Negro schools and twenty white ones; “negro students are not admitted to white schools on the same basis as white students attending these schools” [the County is] operating a system of dual attendance areas. The Court concluded that racial discrimination in the admission of students to schools is prohibited. However, as the transfer of the plaintiffs occurred to assist District in populating a newly opened school so that it could be adequately utilized, their request for an injunction was denied. Given the circumstances, latitude was seen fit; there was an absence of proof that the transfer was done to “accomplish discrimination.”
Call number Civil Action Case #3431
Date from 1962
Date to 1977
Geographic school Chesterfield 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

Types o    Correspondence

o    Legal documents

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

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