USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Civil Action Case #3365- David F. Anderson, et al vs. The School Board of the Town of West Point, et al
| Creator | USDC, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division |
| Description | Ten African American students and their parents filed suit after being denied admission to the public school to which they applied as residents. The reasons for denial included “distance” and “lack of academic qualifications.” The Town School Board and the Superintendent of Schools answered the complaint in shifting sole responsibility to the State Pupil Placement Board as per the Pupil Placement Act of Virginia. As a school district, the Town of West Point had a combined white elementary and high school known as West Point School and an African-American elementary school, known as Beverly Allen School. Black high school students were educated outside of the Town pursuant to arrangements made with neighboring counties in possession of minority high schools. As a result of policy and procedure within the West Point school administration, any black applicants applying to the all-white school, their files were coded as irregular and red flagged upon being referred to the State Pupil Placement Board. At this stage, black students withstood a rigorous degree of scrutiny in the inspection of their residential and scholastic merits unparalleled to that of their Caucasian counterparts. The State Pupil Placement Board claimed to be somehow unaware that the town in question only possessed one high school. It subsequently adopted a policy of assigning all high school aged students within the town applying to West Point High School admission, without consideration of any residential or scholastic criteria. The School Board and Division Superintendent of Schools were expected to submit to the Court a plan, eliminating the discriminatory application process from their admission process at the elementary school level by the 1962-1963 mid-term session. The Court later struck down the School Board’s racially unbiased blueprint of operation and allowed until May 27, 1968 to provide an updated plan. |
| Call number | Civil Action Case #3365 |
| Date from | 1961 |
| Date to | 1968 |
| Geographic school | King William 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 |