Englewood, New Jersey School Board Ordered to End Racial Segregation
Press Release
May 20, 1955

Cite this item
-
Press Releases, Loose Pages. Englewood, New Jersey School Board Ordered to End Racial Segregation, 1955. 0f9fe102-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/76a2df1a-327b-4c0d-8fd1-9c4e8112720b/englewood-new-jersey-school-board-ordered-to-end-racial-segregation. Accessed May 18, 2025.
Copied!
PRESS RELEASE® e NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 107 WEST 43 STREET «© NEW YORK 36, N. Y. ¢ JUdson 6-8397 THURGOOD MARSHALL ARTHUR 8. SPINGARN c= Disclosed Chet rei ROBERT L. CARTER WALTER WHITE Assistant Counsel a ARNOLD De MILLE ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS Press Relations Treasurer ENGL™WOOD, NEW JFRSEY SCHOOL BOARD ORDERED TO END RACIAL SEGREGATION May 20, 1955 TRENTON, N. J., May 19.--Frederick M., Raubinger, Commissioner of Education of the State of New Jersey, today upheld the segregation complaint of Mrs. Mary Walker of Englewood against the Englewood Board of Education, The Commissioner ruled that the Board drew school zone lines affecting kindergarten pupils attending Liberty and Lincoln elementary schools in such a way as to result in the segregation of Negro child- ren in the Lincoln School. The Commissioner also ruled that there is no. justification on educational or other grounds for the maintenance of a separate junior high school at the Lincoln School, which is attend- ed exclusively by Negro children. The Commissioner ordered the Board to draw new lines affecting attendance at Lincoln and Liberty schools by July 1, 1955 and to elim- inate the Lincoln Junior High School by September 1956. The Commissioner pointed out that although the Englewood Board may not have intended segregation, he was obliged to condemn the end result. Mrs. Walker filed her complaint with the New Jersey Division Against Discrimination in July, 1954, alleging that her son, Theodore Walker, aged 5, had been registered in the Liberty School during the month of May, 1954, in accordance with the school zone lines then in effect. She alleged that in September, 195l) he was required to attend the kindergarten at Lincoln, pursuant to new school zone lines adopted by the Board of Fducation on June 28, 195). Mrs. Walker charged that these new lines resulted in segregating Negro children in the Lincoln school, pursuant to a consistent plan and scheme of racial segregation on the part of the Englewood Board of Education. The Division Against Discrimination attempted to conciliate Mrs. Walker's complaint with the Board. When the Division failed to con- ciliate the complaint, a public hearing was ordered. The public hear- ing was held before Commissioner Raubinger in October and November 195). Mrs. Walker's case was presented to the Commissioner by NAACP Legal Defense attorneys Constance Baker Motley and Jack Greenberg and NAACP Attorney Leonard Williams of Trenton, New Jersey.