Aronson Testimony to Special Subcommittee on Education of Committee on Education and Labor

    STATEMENT OF 
HENRY M. ARONSON, ATTORNEY 
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
TO THE SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

Atlanta, Georgia 
December 8, 1966 

For twelve years the law of the land regarding segregated 

schools has been unequivocal -- they are illegal. Every school 

district which maintains segregated schools is acting in viola- 

tion of the Constitution. The fact is that Southern school 

districts, with few exceptions, continue to be operated wholly 

or in part on a segregated basis. 

Recognition of the fact that Supreme Court decisions re- 

quire action only of the named parties to the decision is basic 

to understanding the current segregated status of Southern 

schools. (hile the unequivocal principle that segregated 

schools are unconstitutional enunciated in Brown v. Board of 

Education applies to the 2000-plus Southern school districts 

that maintained segregated schools, the decree required de- 

segregation only of the five school districts which were the 

named parties. 

The limited reach in terms of mandatory action of a court 

decree explains the essential failure of litigation as a tech- 

nique to effect widespread desegregation. Too few attorneys 

are available to conduct litigation against the hundreds of 

segregated school systems in existence at this time. 

I share Congresswoman Green's desire for local control of 

schools. Control presupposes responsibility and local school 

districts have been irresponsible in their continued mainten- 

ance of segregated schools. The Federal Government cannot be 

a partner of local school systems in the support of segregated 

schools. If agencies of the Federal Government suggest certain 

actions of local school boards as a condition to receiving 

Federal funds - suggestions designed to remove segregation - 

the Federal agencies are doing no more than fulfilling their 

obligations pursuant to Title VI, School boards are free to 



ide 

reject the suggestions and Federal funds, Unfortunately, local 

school systems, absent litigation, are free to continue to main- 

tain segregated schools - a freedom our nation can no longer 

afford, 

Given the ineffectiveness of litigation as a means of 

achieving South-wide desegregation, administrative remedies, 

such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, assume mon- 

umental importance. It is nothing less than a tragedy that the 

conceptual scheme and enforcement procedures adopted by the 

Office of Education have been ineffective to effect the results 

required by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Con- 

stitution. 

Statistics published by the Office of Education are decep- 

tive, We are told that X number of Negro children are attending 

school with white children -- usually a geometric percentage in- 

crease over the previous years. Our natural inclination is to 

marvel at such astronomical improvement. A closer examination 

of the unstated facts should dampen our response and discredit 

this numbers game. Examples of the unstated facts would include: 

1. Nowhere in Mississippi, in one district in Alabama and 

in South Carolina, and in only a handful of districts in the re- 

mainder of the South do white children attend schools formerly 

maintained for Negroes. The Negro school continues to exist, 

and I am aware of no action or plans on the part of the Office 

of Education to abolish this segregated institution. 

2. There has been no progress worthy of note in faculty 

desegregation in the deep South. To my knowledge there are no 

Negroes teaching as regular teachers in formerly white schools 

in Mississippi. There are two in all of Alabama. Similarly, 

to my knowledge there are no white teachers in Negro schools in 

Alabama and Mississippi. The pattern is the same, with few ex- 

ceptions, throughout the deep South. 

3. Not one Negro athletic team has played a team from a 

formerly white school anywhere in the deep South. 



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4. Segregated transportation systems are maintained 

throughout the deep South to this day. Little or no effort 

has been made to consolidate routes serving Negro and white 

students - even when these children attend the same school. 

5. As of this time new schools are constnucted to ac- 

commodate children of one race. In Alabama, prior to a new 

school being constructed, the Alabama State Department of 

Education takes a census of only those children of the race 

for whom the school is to be built. The Alabama State Board 

of Education has been found by the Office of Education to be 

in compliance with Title VI. 

The existence of all-Negro schools, segregated faculties, 

segregated athletics, segregated transportation, continued 

building of schools for children of one race suggest that the 

Office of Education standards of progress -=- Negroes in white 

schools -~ are of little or no value and even those statistics 

are not impressive 12 years after Brown. 

The continued existence of pervasive segregation within 

school systems can be traced in larce part to the use of free- 

dom of choice as a means of accomplishing desegregation. 

Southern school superintendents readily admit that white 

children will not choege Negro schools. Extraordinary press- 

ures exist in many communities which inhibit Negro children 

from choosing white schools. The ugly events of this past 

September in Grenada, events which I personally witnessed, 

carry a message to Negro homes throughout the South. Aside 

from violence there is the omnipresent threat of loss of jobs 

and homes to countless thousands of Negro families who choose 

to do no more than exercise their constitutional rights, The 

failure of the white, coupled with the fear of the Negroes, 

will undoubtedly insure the continued existence of the Negro 

school so long as freedom of choice is relied upon by the 

Office of Education as the primary technique for accomplishing 

desegregation. The Negro community cannot in good conscience 

be expected to assume the burden of desegregating schools. 



The burden must be shifted to school authorities. They alone 

created segregated schools. They must assume the responsibility 

of desegregating their schools. 

If we accept the thesis of Title VI that Federal monies 

cannot be used to support segregated institutions, a thesis 

that is also compelled by the Constitution s- the Office of 

Education is subject to criticism for doing too little rather 

than too much. The criticism we have heard from Southern whites 

is simply not supportable in fact. Nine Mississippi school dis- 

tricts which at this time are considered to be in compliance 

with Title VI have not one Negro in a white school. These nine 

districts include: Bay St. Louis, Franklin County, Jones County, 

Lowndes County, Monroe, Pontotoc, Union County, Wayne and Union 

Special Municipal School District. 

In fact, most if not all school districts found to be in 

compliance with Title VI would be required to do more than they 

presently are, if they were brought into court. I find it ironic 

that the Office of Education has not been defended by the Southern 

whites, for the Office of Education has added respectability and 

credibility to the continued existence of segregation practices 

in countless Southern school districts. 

The Congress has an obligation -- and I sincerely hope the 

work of this subcommittee will lead the way -- to enact further 

legislation which will provide funds and a mandate to the Office 

of Education and all Federal agencies to insure that Federal 

monies in fact are not used discriminatorily. Title VI, like 

Brown v. Board of Education, set down a principle. Hopefully, 

further legislation will provide for the realization of this 

principle.