North Carolina School Board Integrates by Court Order

    °BeESS RELEASE®@ ® 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TO COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS CS THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL BOARD 
INTEGRATES BY COURT ORDER 

BURNSVILLE, N.C., Oct. 13. -- The first public school board in 

North Carolina ordered to integrate by the courts, today obeyed a 

federal court mandate and assigned eight Negro students to two pre- 

viously all-white high schools. 

The Yancey County Board of Education had been ordered on Septem- 

ber 13, to admit the eight Negro students to either one or both of its 

two-all-white high schools within 30 days by federal Judge Wilson 

Warlick. 

School authorities also indicated that the board would not appeal 

a recent decision of Judge Warlick ordering the school board to recon- 

sider the assignments of 17 Negro children to a new two-room elementary 

school, built solely for Negroes. 

Judge Warlick's integration order resulted from a case filed on 

November 11, 1959, by attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educa- 

tional Fund on behalf of 27 Negro students. Prior to the 1958-59 

school term, the county operated a separate, one-room wooden elementaz. 

school in Burnsville (the county seat) for about 30 Negro children. 

This represented the entire Negro school population of the County. It 

is estimated that Yancey's Negro population is 200, while there are 

16,000 whites. 

In the summer of 1958, the Yancey County grand jury had condemned 

the one-room wooden building as "inadequate," "unsafe," and "unsani- 

tary." During the 1958-59 school year the Negro children journeyed 

80 miles daily to Asheville by bus, to attend Negro schools. The 

County School Board had never operated a high school for Negores and 

during the past two years, maintained no schools for Negroes. 

On June 16, 1959, parents of the Negro children asked the school 

board to assign them to the Yancey schools rather than to Asheville, 



Ss <a r e@ 

which is located out 6f the County. The transfer requests were 

rejected on August 10, 1959, and the children were reassigned to the 

Asheville segregated schools for the 1959-60 school term. 

Following the filing of the suit by Legal Defense Fund attorneys 

in behalf of the Negro children, the school board borrowed $30,000 to 

build a two-room segregated elementary school. The school opened for 

the 1960-61 year in late August with two Negro teachers. All Negro 

children in the county, with ages ranging from 13-19, were assigned to 

the new school without regard to ages or grades. Only four students 

reported on the opening day. 

Legal Defense attorneys petitioned Judge Warlick for a temporary 

injunction restraining the school board from assigning all of the 

County's Negro children to this new school because of race. Judge 

Warlick termed the action of the school board "discriminatory," "unlaw- 

ful," and a "violation" of their constitutional rights. 

On September 13, Judge Warlick signed the injunction ordering the 

school board to assign eight of the Negro children to eitter one or 

both of the County's two high schools within 30 days. He also gave 

the school board 30 days in which to reconsider the assignment of the 

17 other Negro children assigned to the two-room Negro school. Com- 

pliance by the school board places Yancey County on record as having 

the first court ordered integrated school in North Carolina. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys are Jack Greenberg and 

Thurgood Marshall of New York City. Local counsel in the case are 

Ruben Dailey of Asheville, N. C. and Conrad O. Pearson of Durham, N.C. 

Pareles