LDF Asks Supreme Court to Put Teeth in Its '54 School Ruling; Christian v. Board of Education of Strong School District, Arkansas (Telegram)

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President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel egal Eeause ond Jack Greenberg 
Director, Public Relations NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Jesse DeVore, Jr. 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 iciT Nomen 712-749-0487 

FOR RELEASE 
FRIDAY 
FEBRUARY 16, 1968 

LDF ASKS SUPREME COURT 
TO PUT TEETH IN ITS 
*54 SCHOOL RULING 

Three Cases Seek Halt to Southern Dilatory Tactics 

WASHINGTON---The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) 
today filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in three school inte- 
gration cases. 

The cases--which the court has already agreed to review--present a 
critical test of the extent and meaning of that court's 1954 Brown 
decision. 

The litigation comes from Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas and deals 
with issues prevalent across the South, namely, "freedom of choice," 
gerrymandering of school zones, and "open transfer" plans. 

These cases present a common pattern in that 80-85% of the Negro stu- 
dents in the respective communities are still attending all-Negro seg- 
regated schools just as they were before the Brown decision. 

The school boards in each of these cases assert that the school system 
is completely desegregated because all of the Negro students theoreti- 
cally have a right to attend previously white schools. 

Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, Virginia: 

*New Kent County is a rural area of Virginia near Richmond which 
has just two schools, one of which was traditionally for whites 
and the other for Negroes. 

It is operating under a "freedom of choice" desegregation plan 
under which all of the white students in the system continue to 
attend the traditionally white school and 85% of the Negro stu- 
dents continue to attend the traditionally and still all-Negro 
school. 

Raney v. Gould School District, Arkansas: 

*Gould, Arkansas, is a small rural community southeast of Little 
Rock. (Same situation as in Green.) 

Monroe v. Board of Commissioners of Jackson, Tennessee: 

*Jackson, Tennessee, is a small city in midwest Tennessee with 13 
schools, 8 of which were traditionally white and 5 were Negro. 
It is operating under a desegregation plan based upon residential 
zones which the LDF says have been gerrymandered to perpetuate 
segregation. 

Again, all of the white students in the system continue to attend 
the traditionally white schools and 80% of the Negro students 
continue to attend the traditionally and still all-Negro schools. 

These cases thus present, in effect, to the Supreme Court the issue of 
whether "tokenism" in school integration is sufficient to comply with 
Brown. 

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FBS 



DOMESTIC SERVICE 
‘Check the class 
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jesired; 

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Secee|; WESTERN UNION 
TELEGRAM 

otherwise the message will ee 
cE wrmanee TRIER GRAM =mcae a 

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD 4 AT ULN Renmureaies rs PRESIDENT 

[Wo wos-cr or sve | ro orca | casn no CHARGE TO THE ACCOUNT OF 
T N Legal Defense & 1.Fund 
10 lumbus Circle, 

‘Send the following message, subject to the terms on back hereof, which are hereby agreed to 

Nyc _ 10019 

Febuary 15, 

FOR THE FIRST TIME 
$100,000 IN DAMA 
STRONG, ARKANSAS 

1968 

A COMPLAINT ASKING 
3 S OF ELEVEN STUDENTS IN 

IGROES ALS ONSOLIDATION INTO ONE 
Is AN _V. BOARD OF EDUCATION 

FILED IN THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT 
IRTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE 

2 i EYS JOHN WALKER AND NORMAN CHACHKIN AT 

Jesse DeVore 
Director of Public Information 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 

10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 
Inc. 



Mr. Thomas J. Dygard 
ASSOCIATED PRESS 
P.O. Box 789 
Little Rock, Ark. 72203 

Bureau Chief 
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL 

Gazette Bldg., Rm. 30 
Little Rock, Ark. 

Mr. Ernest Dunas 
N.Y. TIMES Correspondent 
ARK, GAZETTE 
112 W. Third Ave. 
Little Rock, Ark. 72203 

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