Aronson Testimony to Special Subcommittee on Education of Committee on Education and Labor
Press Release
December 8, 1966

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Press Releases, Volume 4. Aronson Testimony to Special Subcommittee on Education of Committee on Education and Labor, 1966. 4931135d-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/7ef4e607-5ce1-4910-82b6-e4fbf951195f/aronson-testimony-to-special-subcommittee-on-education-of-committee-on-education-and-labor. Accessed July 16, 2025.
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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. Ee = Oe 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.