LDF Files Brief in Mobile, Ala. School Desegregation Case

    13] 

4 cs 
ile ae Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEA Uvector Counsel 
, efense | lund c a ae jak a 

s f V/ rector, Public Kelation NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC y ‘Charles J. Hayes 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 + JUdson 6.8397 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

LDF FILES BRIEF IN MOBILE CASE 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have filed a 
brief in the U.S. Supreme Court today asking that the Court make a final de- 
termination as to how to achieve full school desegregation throughout the 
South. 

The case involved is Davis v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile 
County (Ala.). The case, which has drawn national attention, will be argued | 
on October 12 and 13 when the Court begins its 1970-71 term. | 

The Legal Defense Fund, in the Davis brief is asking the Court to 
declare the following general principle that: Every Black child is to be | 
free from assignment to a "Black" school -- an identifiable racial minority 
school -- at every grade of his/her education. 

The brief argues that the only excuse from this requirement is cases 
of "absolute unworkability" of desegregation plans, as for example where 
blacks are a very high percent of the total school population and perhaps in 
other extreme circumstances of geographical and demographic flukes. 

The LDF argues that its proposed principle requiring the elimination 
of all identifiable "black" schools in dual systems is simple enough to 
bring an end to protracted litigation, will promote uniformity of desegre- 
gation efforts and nevertheless allows some flexibility for local problems 
and extreme cases. The brief underlines the importance of the cases saying: 

"The decision of the Court in these cases may decide 

whether the promise of Brown (the 1954 desegregation 

decision) will be kept for thousands upon thousands 

of black children. That promise is broken by the 

current approach of the Fifth Circuit which leaves 
segregation intact in the main institutions of dual 

system -- the all black schools." 

The LDF obtained Supreme Court review of this case complaining that 
the desegregation plan now in effect in Mobile leaves about half of the 
black elementary school children in Metropolitan Mobile in schools which | 
are all black. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered the 
plan into effect on the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Justice | 
which has participated in the case since 1968. The suit was begun on be- 
half of Negro pupils and parents in 1963 by the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense 
& Educational Fund, Inc. Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel of the Fund, will 
argue this case before the Court. 

=30= 

NOTE: Please bear in mind that the LDF is a completely separate and distinct 
organization even though we were established by the NAACP and those initials 
are retained in our name. Our correct designation is NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, Inc., frecuently shortened to LDF.