Memorandum: Englewood, New Jersey, School Case

    PRESS RELEASE ® e 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET + NEW YORK 36, N. Y. © JUdson 6-8397 
ARTHUR B. SPINGARN THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director and Counsel 

WALTER WHITE ROBERT L. CARTER 
Secretory Assistant Counsel 

ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD DE MILLE 
Treasurer Press Relations 

October 27, 195) 

Memorandum 

oy Editors 

From: Arnold deMille 

Re: Englewood, New Jersey, School Case 

The public hearing was called by John P. Milligan, Director 

of the Division Against Discrimination, in August 195), to air the 

complaints of two Negro parents when he failed in his efforts to con- 

ciliate the present dispute over the attendance of Negro children 

in the Lincoln School and when the Englewood Board of Education failed 

to halt the effective date of the newly drawn school zone lines. The 

hearing, originally scheduled for September 28th, was postponed to 

October 20th. It began last Wednesday and continued yesterday.It is 

being conducted by State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Frederick 

Raubinger, and held in the State House Annex in Trenton, the State 

Capitol. 

ISSUE The controversy involved concerns the extension of the 

northern boundary of the Lincoln School Zone in such 

a manner as to include all of the th ward, a heavily populated Negro 

area, into one zone, thereby forcing the Negro pupils to attend a seg- 

regated school. 

BACKGROUND On December 6, 1953 Mrs. Susanne Anderson of 3 Amory Street 

filed a complaint with the Division Against Discrimination, 

State of New Jersey Department of Education, complaining 

that her son, James Anderson, Jr., was compelled to attend the Lincoln 

School which is located outside of his school zone. She lives in the 

zone which is attended by the Liberty School, on the west side of 

Amory Street. 



On July *@ 1954 Mrs. Mary Walker of eo Franklin Road 

filed a complaint with the Division Against Discrimination, charging 

that her son, Theodore Walker, was enrolled at the Liberty 

School in May 1954, but under the newly zoned school lines, effective 

September 1, 195), her son is compelled to attend kindergarten in 

the Lincoln School. 

On September 23, five new complaints were filed with the 

Division Against Discrimination on behalf of the following Negro 

parents: Mrs. Hattie Harper, Mrs. Florie Scott, Mrs. Julia Hannibal, 

Mrs. Edith Ward and Mrs. Lorrine Clark, 

The first four complaints were similar to that of Mrs. 

Mary Walker. The fifth complaint filed on behalf of Mrs. Lorrine 

Clark charged that although she lives on the east side of Lafayette 

Place, at First Street, her children were denied the option of attend- 

ing the Liberty School. 

These five complaints have not yet been processed, but the 

parents will appear as witnesses in the cases of Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. 

Walker, 

BOUNDARIES Prior to June 28, 195i, the hth ward was divided into 

two school zones. Part of the hth ward constituted 

the Lincoln School zone. Another part of the kth ward 

constituted part of the Liberty School zone. The other part of the 

Liberty School zone constituted part of the third ward. 

Until June 28, 195), the northern boundary of the Lincoln 

School zone in the th ward was just south of Palisades Avenue, ex- 

tending from the railroad west to the east side of Amory Street. The 

eastern boundary of the Lincoln zone was the railroad. 

The southern boundary commences at Lafayette Place and 

Tietjen Avenue. The western boundary joined the northern boundary 

just south of Palisades Avenue on the east side of Amory Street, ex- 

tended directly south through a park and west to Lafayette Place, 

continuing down the east side of Lafayette Place to Tietjen Avenue. 

On June 28, 195l,, the Board adopted new school zone lines 

which involved students entering the kindergarten in Lincoln School 

only, and the children entering kindergarten and grade 1 of Roosevelt, 

Franklin, Cleveland and Liberty schools, Under the new school zone 

lines, which went into effect September 1, 195, the northern boundary 

of the Liberty School was extended north from Demarest Avenue to 

Slocum Avenue and Tryon Avenue, to include more students in the 

Liberty School and to relieve the overcrowding in the Cleveland 



the Engle Street Junior High School. 

The parents of the Negro children complaint that the in- 

tention of the Englewood Board of Education in erecting a new school 

in the heart of the Negro area is for no other reason than confining 

the Negro school population into one school zone, thereby perpetuating 

segregated schools. 

ATTORNEYS At the public hearing this case against the Board of Educa- 

tion of Englewood is presented by Deputy Attorney General 

Thomas Cook on behalf of the Division Against Discrimination 

in the State of New Jersey. The complainants, Mrs. Susanne Anderson 

and Mrs. Mary Walker are represented by Leonard Williams of Trenton, 

New Jersey, as local counsel, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fund Staff Attorneys Constance Baker Motley and Jack Greenberg. 

alps 



SCHOOL ATTENDA} FIGURES 

ELEMENTARY SCHC 5 

NAME OF SCHOOL GRADES moran WHITE 

Roosevelt Elementary K-6 420 8% 92% 

Franklin Elementary K-6 315 uA 96% 

Cleveland Elementary K=6 622 0% 100% 

Liberty Elementary K-6 Lbs 43% o7% 

Lincoln Elementary K-6 386 99+% -- 

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Engle Street J. H. S, 7-9 623 10% == 

Lincoln J.H.S. 7-9 133 994% ie 

HIGH SCHOOLS 

Dwight Morrow H. 8S. 10-12 963 13% 87%