Charles C. Green – Desegregation of Virginia Education (DOVE)

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

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