The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals with hear on Monday, October 10…

    “ PRESS RELEASE® * 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
1O COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

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

RICHMOND, VA., Oct. 6. -- The U. S. Fourth Circuit Court of 

Appeals will hear on Monday, October 10, argument in a case brought 

against the Greensboro, N. C, School Board by 4 Negro children protest- 

ing the city's continued racial segregation policy in the public school 

system. 

The case originally reached the district court in February, 1959, 

after the Greensboro School Board refused to assign the Negro children 

-- Michael Anthony Tonkins and Valarie, Eric and Thetus McCoy -- to an 

all-white school a few blocks from their homes. The case was filed in 

behalf of the children by attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund. 

The Board required that the Negro children enroll at the Washingtcn 

Street School, some 13 blocks from their homes. 

However, when the children tried to enroll at the Washington 

School they were assigned back to a small, dilapidated, segregated , 

annex on the same campusas the all-white school to which they first 

applied, They were not permitted to enter the main building and were 

denied use of its superior school facilities, such as, the gymnasium, 

cafeteria, etc. They had to eat their lunches on outside benches and 

on the steps of the annex used for their classrooms. 

During pendency of the lawsuit, the Negro children were moved intc 

the main building at the beginning of the 1959-60 school term. Shortly 

thereafter, all of the white children and teachers were assigned to 

white schools and a complete Negro student body and faculty were 

substituted, 

A supplemental complaint was filed in behalf of the Negro children 

by NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys. It brought to the attention of 

the court the new maneuvers of the School Board and asked the court to 

require the school authorities to present a plan of desegregation of 

the city's public school system. 



The district court dismissed this complaint on October 27, 1959, 

holding that when the children gained assignment to the school to which 

they originally applied, they had obtained everything to which they 

were entitled. 

The Negro children's only right, the court ruled, was admission to 

the school of their choice. Plaintiffs did not have a right to desegr+ 

gation as such. 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys took the case to the Fourth Circuit 

Court of Appeals in March, 1960. 

Attorneys in the case are J. Kenneth Lee of Greensboro, N. C. and 

C. O. Pearson of Durham, N. C.; Thurgood Marshall, Jack Greenberg and 

James M. Nabrit, III, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund staff in New 

York City. Mr. Greenberg will argue the case. 

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