Supreme Court to Hear Tennessee School Case Appeal Tuesday

    “SPRESS RELEASE® e 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TOCOLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
Prosident Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

Ss 

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR 
TENNESSEE SCHOOL CASE APPEAL TUESDAY 

March 12, 1963 

NEW YORK -- The United States Supreme Court will hear two important 

and potentially far-reaching school desegregation cases Tuesday, 

March 19th. 

The cases, from Knoxville and Davidson County, Tennessee, are 

consolidated appeals brought by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund chal- 

lenging "racial option transfer" provisions adopted by the two 

school boards which were approved by the Court of Appeals for the 

Sixth Circuit last April. 

The plaintiffs, who will be represented before the Court by 

the Fund's Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, contend that the transfer 

provisions operate to perpetuate segregation rather than further 

desegregation and, thus, should be ruled inconsistent with the 

Supreme Court's 1955 decision requiring desegregation of local school 

systems "with all deliberate speed." 

Under the "racial option" system, as adopted by the Knoxville 

and Davidson County school boards and approved by the Sixth Circuit, 

children assigned to schools which previously served the other race 

are permitted to transfer to schools where their race is in the 

majority; they may also transfer if they are assigned to any school 

or grade where their race is in the minority. White children who are 

required, through rezoning effected via the desegregation plan, to 

attend schools with a higher percentage of Negro students can 

therefore transfer back to the "white" schools, thus resegregating 

the system. 

The Fund petition to the Court points out that this racial 

transfer device has "become a significant and effective method for 

limiting desegregation. Its use insures that the traditional 

all-Negro school will remain all-Negro, even after every grade is 



Tenn, school cases ~- 2 

covered in a grade-by-grade plan. This has been the uniform exper- 

ience with this device." The petition also hits the "racial option" 

procedure for expressly recognizing race as a ground for transfer. 

Both Knoxville and Davidson County, which is adjacent to 

Nashville, adopted school plans for grade-per-year desegregation 

beginning with the first grade -- Knoxville in 1960, Davidson County 

in 1961. The District Court in the Davidson County case ordered the 

first four grades desegregated at the outset. The Court of Appeals in 

the Knoxville case ordered the plan accelerated. Both plans contain 

provisions for rezoning and for transfers, but it is the transfer 

issue which is specifically attacked in the Supreme Court appeal. 

The Fund petition argues that acceptance of the transfer 

provision in the Tennessee cases by the Sixth Circuit conflicts with 

holdings on similar transfer procedures by the Court of Appeals for 

the Fifth Circuit (deep South states) and the Fourth Circuit (south- 

eastern seaboard states). It cites a ruling by the Fifth Circuit 

in the Dallas, Texas school case prohibiting a transfer provision 

based on race, and similar holdings by the Fourth Circuit in the 

Roanoke, Va. and Durham, N. C. school cases. 

In addition to Mr. Greenberg, NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys 

for the Negro children are Carl A, Cowan of Knoxville, Tenn., 

Z. Alexander Looby and Avon N. Williams of Nashville, and James M. 

Nabrit, III, of New York City. 
HHH