New Rochelle Decision Called "Extremely Significant" by Legal Defense Fund Attorneys
Press Release
August 7, 1961

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. New Rochelle Decision Called "Extremely Significant" by Legal Defense Fund Attorneys, 1961. 57be02ca-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/1063349c-8f2e-463b-8c17-bc232b930e65/new-rochelle-decision-called-extremely-significant-by-legal-defense-fund-attorneys. Accessed July 09, 2025.
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PRESS RELEASE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS © > THURGOOD MARSHALL President Director-Counsal NEW ROCHELLE DECISION CALLED "EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT" BY LEGAL DEFENSE FUND ATTORNEYS August 7, 1961 NEW YORK - Last week's important decision in the New Rochelle, N, Y. school segregation case, won 2-to-l in the U. S. Court of Appeals by NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys, was hailed today as "extremely significant" by Constance Baker Motley and Paul B, Zuber, who represented the Negro plaintiffs. "Tuesday's decision was the result of a 30-year struggle," said Mrs. Motley. "It means that the Supreme Court school desegregation ruling of 1954 will be applied with equal vigor to northern as well as southern school boards." "The School Board has already lost twice," observed Mr. Zuber, who argued the case for the Negro parents when the suit was initiated last fall. “The Board may appeal to the Supreme Court, but we feel the law has been established." The Court of Appeals, on August 2, upheld the ruling of Federal Judge Irving R. Kaufman of January 24, that the New Rochelle Board of Education had, prior to 1949, deliberately created its Lincoln School as an all-Negro school, and since then "has been motivated by the pur- poseful desire of maintaining the Lincoln School as a racially segregated school," The School Board has been ordered to initiate a desegregation plan by September, 1961, which will make it possible for parents in the Lincoln School district to transfer their children to schools in other districts. The appeal to the Circuit Court by the School Board was from Judge Kaufman's decision, and from the desegregation plan which he had ordered, Judge Joseph E. Clark, representing the majority in the Circuit Court opinion, held that "...the present 94 percent Negro enrollment aoe at the Lincoln School goes beyond mere ‘racial imbalance’ and approxi- mates closely the harmful conditions condemned in the Brown case.” It called Judge Kaufman's desegregation plan “noteworthy for its moderation." A strong dissent was registered by Circuit Court Judge Leonard P. Moore. He stated in his dissenting opinion that ".,.the effect and implications of the lower court decision were to place the operation of the schools in the hands of the Federal courts or a single judge." Mrs. Motley, reflecting on the case, said "some New Rochelle officials will be outraged because they feel the Brown decision should be applied only to the South, What the court has said, in effect, is that they are doing the same thing the South does. "Tuesday's decision means that in the North, as well as the South, where there has been official action to create or preserve school segregation, such action will have to be considered in the light of the New Rochelle case." New Rochelle's Lincoln School, which is now 94 percent Negro, has long been the subject of dispute. Mrs. Motley noted that in 1930 a Negro dentist, Dr. Leon Scott, complained in a letter to Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt that the Lincoln School district was gerrymanderec to include an overwhelming racial majority of Negro students. This situation was accentuated by a school board policy which allowed white children who lived in the Lincoln district to transfer to other schools if they wished. When, in 1949, complaints by Negro parents and the NAACP increased, the permissive transfer policy was abolished. Negro groups continued to protest, however, for the new policy did not alleviate the virtually all-Negro character of the Lincoln School. The School Board called in several experts, including Dr. Dan W. Dodson of Columbia University. The Dodson Report, completed in 1957, confirmed the existence of racial imbalance in New Rochelle schools. The Dodson Report, said the Circuit Court, "was a most com- prehensive statement of the problem and an admonition to the Board to make a broadly based attack upon the evil of segregation...." The Board, in 1957, proposed to rebuild the Lincoln School on its present site. Negro groups opposed this plan vigorously, arguing that it would "freeze in" seqregation in the Lincoln district. greg =32 Nevertheless, the proposal to build a new Lincoln School was carried before a referendum vote in May, 1960, and was passed. A group of Negro parents, represented by the local NAACP chapter, then appealed to the State Commissioner of Education, but the appeal was rejected. In the Fall of 1960, a federal District Court suit was instituted by the parents of eleven Negro children who refused to send their children to the Lincoln School, Judge Kaufman's decision of January 24, and his desegregation decree of May 31, will make it possible for these parents to send their children to other public schools in New Rochelle. NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys for the Negro plaintiffs were Paul B. Zuber, Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley, all of New York City. c(i