Memorandum to Counsel of Record from Chabert (Clerk)
Public Court Documents
October 8, 1987

Cite this item
-
Press Releases, Loose Pages. Ask Immediate End of Prince Edward Bias Schools, 1956. 047d2e4b-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/e67446e9-89b0-481a-8a88-bea6eeed757c/ask-immediate-end-of-prince-edward-bias-schools. Accessed May 18, 2025.
Copied!
—. e - PRESS RELEASE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 107 WEST 43 STREET »+ NEW YORK 36, N. Y. «© JUdson 6-8397 ARTHUR B. SPINGARN oa THURGOOD MARSHALL President Director and Counsel ROY WILKINS ROBERT L. CARTER Secretary Assistant Counsel ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD de MILLE Treasurer Press Relations ASK IMMEDIATE END OF PRINCE EDWARD BIAS SCHOOLS April 26, 1956 RICHMOND, VA.--NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorneys asked the Federal court this week to order the Prince Edward School Board to make an immediate start toward desegregation of its public schools. The court was also urged to set the September term as a deadline when integration should start. The request was made in a motion filed Monday with the Federal District Court in behalf of several Negro students and their parents. The motion called upon the court to issue a permanent injunction pro- hibiting Prince Edward school officials from using race as the basis of determining admission to the public secondary schools, and to order the School Board to file "interim reports" showing the plans and steps taken toward compliance with the May 31, 1955 Supreme Court implementation decree, Prince Edward County was a defendant in the school segregation cases decided by the U. S, Supreme Court in May, 1954. School offi- cials have since openly declared that they will close the schools rather than comply with the Court's mandate. Attorneys for the Negroes accused county officials of taking no "substantial action toward formulation of policy and plans" to desegre- gate the classrooms, They charge further that school authorities "will indefinitely continue to do so" unless specifically ordered by the court "to make an immediate start toward desegregation and to complete this by a prescribed period of time." NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorneys for the Negro students and parents are Thurgood Marshall, Director—Counsel of Legal Defense in New York, and Spottswood W. Robinson, III and Oliver W. Hill, of Richmond, Va. =e300= =2e REV. KING GUEST SPEAKER AT MAY 17 ANNIVERSARY DINNER April 26, 1956 NEW YORK.--The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the Montgomery protest movement, will be one of the principal speakers at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., May 17th dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. It is the second affair given by the Legal Defense Fund in observance of the Supreme Court decision out- lawing segregation in public education. Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Under Secretary of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize winner, is chairman of the dinner committee. Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the N.A.A.C.P. and Thurgood Marshall, Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, are scheduled to give progress reports. = 50