U.S. Court Says Oklahoma City School Board Must Take Positive Action on Desegregation

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NAACP 

Legal Defense and EducationalFund 
PRESS RELEASE Sn eee 

xg President , sg 
iy Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers b a 

F Director-Counsel FOR RELEASE 
Jack Greenberg Satunda TGAys 

Augnar 14, 1965 

U.S. COURT SAYS OKLAHOMA CITY SCHOOL BOARD 
MUST TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ON DESEGREGATION 

Integration of Faculties Also Ordered 

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA.--Federal District Court Judge Luther i, 

Bohanon set a new precedent in school desegregation casas’ yesterday 

in ruling that the Oklahoma City Board of Education must take 

positive and affirmative steps to eliminate racial segregation in 

public schools. 

The ruling followed a hearing on a desegregation report 

prepared by three education experts who were hired by the NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund on behalf of the Negro plaintiffs 

in the court action. 

The experts were hired with the court's approval after the 

Board of Education had rejected the court's suggestion that it have 

such a study made to obtain expert assistance in solving its 

desegregation problems, 

In a July, 1963 ruling, Judge Bohanon had found that 

desegregation in Oklahoma City schools was insufficient to fulfill 

the mandate of the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation ruling. 

At that time the court revoked a transfer plan that allowed 

white children assigned to predominately Negro schools to transfer 

back to all-white schools. 

Although there is segregation in 90 per cent of the city's 

schools as a result of residential patterns, the board indicated it 

felt no obligation to take action to correct the situation. 

In yesterday's ruling the court adopted recommendations in the 

experts' report which included a transfer policy which would 

enable Negro children assigned to predominately Negro schools to 

obtain, for that reason, transfers to predominately white schools. 

(more) 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Inf ion—Night Number 212 RI ide 9-8487 ee 



Pd 

U.S, Court Says Oklahoma City School Board August 14, 19 
Must Take Positive Action on Desegregation 

d The Court also ordered the combination of zones for two pair 

5 high schools to further desegregate them and set a teacher 

nfiog policy that by 1970 will result in integrated faculties for 

-all Oklahoma City schools, 

a. Presently, 18 per cent of the city's teachers are Negroes, bu 

ost are assigned to predominately Negro schools. The plan's goal 

for each school to have approximately 18 per cent Negro incite 

Legal Defense Fund Assistant Counsel Derrick A, Bell said the 

décision represents an important milestone in the legal fight to E 

ring about meaningful compliance with the ll-year-old Supreme 

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urt finding that Negro children assigned to segregated schools 

re denied an equal education. 

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"If followed by the courts, the decision means that school 

dards will no longer be able to substitute the segregated housing ; 

patterns generally found in most American communities for the 

now illegal dual school zones," Mr. Bell said. "The result 

of such ‘neighborhood schools’ is that education is as segregated 

now as it was before 1954," 

, The New York attorney, who was joined by U, Simpson Tate of 

Wewoka, Oklahoma, in the case, indicated he expects the Cklahoma 

City School Board to appeal the ruling. 

é The education experts employed by the Legal Defense Fund are i 

ppd Wwilliam R, Cormack, director of the Southwest Center for Human 

Me iations Studies at the University of Oklahoma; Dr. Willard R. 

Spaulding, Assistant Director of the Coordinating Council for 

Higher Education, San Francisco, Calif.; and Dr. Earl A, McGovern, — 

Administrative assistant to the Superintendent of New Rochelle, 

N.Y., schools, 

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