Memorandum on Evaluation of HEW's New School Desegregation Guidelines

    10 Columbus Circle / 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal:Defense and Educational Fund 
‘PRESS RELEASE 
President 

‘on. Francis E. Rivers 
‘i cc FOR RELEASE 
mf jirector-Counsel 

err Jack Greenberg Saturday, 
neeH March 12, 1966 

“% MEMORANDUM 

TO: | WEEKLY EDITORS 

-FROM?? Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director, Public Information 

IBJECT: EVALUATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND 
WELFARE'S NEW SCHOOL DESEGREGATION GUIDELINES, 

NEW YORK---Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal 
Defense and Educational Fund, this week released the following : 
evaluation statement in response to HEW's school desegregation Zz 
guidelines, issued Monday, March 7th. eg 

"The new guidelines' effectiveness in desegregating public 
schools will depend fundamentally on whether the Administration is 
willing to make a powerful political commitment on manpower and 
funds to achieve desegregation. We have had no encouragement in@¥ 
this area, 

"Paper promises over the past decade have meant nothing because 
unfortunately local school officials have not hesitated to lie, 
Enforcing the guidelines, even with a great commitment of 
appropriations and manpower, will nevertheless be difficult because 
of their complexity, permissiveness in many areas, and wide scope 
of exceptions, 

"The exception, which permits school boards which have been 
operating under court orders to continue as in the past, even though 
such orders fall far short of the guidelines, is extremely 
unfortunate, 

"Millions of children in every major city in the South and many 
small towns and rural areas in which the Negro community is most 
active now are covered by court orders entered well before the 
1964 Civil Rights Act. 

"Negroes will be paying a penalty for insistence upon their 
civil rights in the fifties and early sixties. The only remedy which 
the guidelines offer is that victims of segregation can go back 
to court. 

"Beyond that, we fail to see specific standards for eliminating 
gerrymandering, selection of school sites for new construction or 
expansion of existing facilities, favorite tactics of districts that 
want to continue segregation far into the future. 

"We are shocked by the admitted total failure to treat northern 
segregation problems, 

"Wie are happy, however, that finally the Department has 
retreated.from its position that it can do nothing about the 
wanton firing of Negro teachers and has adopted a regulation for- 
bidding it." 

att 

-30- 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ses