Tampa Case Sets New Pace for Public School Desegregation in Deep South

    ~<PRESS RELEASE® id 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 
DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS <a THURGOOD MARSHALL President Director-Counsel 

April 21, 1960 

TAMPA CASE SETS NEW PACE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL 
DESEGREGATION IN DEEP SOUTH 

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. -- Attempts by southern states to maintain 

segregated public schools was blocked last week by a decision of 

the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The decision in- 

volved the public schools in Tampa and Hillsborough County, Florida. 

The court ruled that state authorities are "duty bound to 

devote every effort toward initiating desegregation and bringing 

about the elimination of racial discrimination in the public school 

system." 

Since 1955, Fbrida and several other southern states have 

adopted pupil assignment laws which provide that individual students 

may seek reassignment and may have their reassignment requests 

granted if they meet "psychological, sociological, religious, ethical 

cultural, health; safety and good order tests” prescribed by the pupi: 

assignment statute. 

Following enactment of these laws, southern school authorities 

in Florida reassigned all Negro children to the Negro schools which 

they previously attended. When sued by Negro parents for compliance 

with the Supreme Court's decisions, the school authorities would 

defend on the ground that the Negro child involved had not met the 

requirements provided by the pupil assignment law. 

The court's ruling last week provides that individual Negro 

children need not first apply for reassignment nor first exhaust the 

administrative remedy before bringing suit to desegregate the schools 

since the duty is on the school board to initiate desegregation. 

The court's ruling made it clear that if the tests prescribed 

by a pupil assignment law are used, they must be applied by the 

school board to all children in assigning them to classrooms and not 

just to Negro children seeking assignment to "white" schools. 



-2- 

The court further ruled that reassignment of all children to 

the segregated schools which they had previously attended pursuant to 

a pupil assignment law is nothing more than a continuance of the 

segregation policy held unconstitutional. 

The effect of the decision is to force school authorities to 

come forward with a reasonable plan for full compliance with the 

Supreme Court's decisions. The decision is binding not only on 

federal courts in Florida, but also on federal courts in other 

states comprising the Fifth Circuit, i.e., Georgia, Alabama, Louisians 

Mississippi and Texas. 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorneys for the 

Negro parents and their children were Francisco Rodriguez of Tampa, 

and Constance Baker Motley and Thurgood Marshall of New York City. 

Bae [oy = 

April 21, 1960 

RICHMOND, VA. -- The Greenville Municipal Airport discriminatiori 

case was reversed yesterday by the United States Court of Appeals for 

the Fourth Circuit and ordered reinstituted in the district court. 

The case was dismissed on September 11, 1959, by Judge George Bell 

Timmerman of the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of 

South Carolina, 

The U. S. District Court will be required to hold a trial at 

which the full facts of the segregation practices of the Greenville 

airport may be placed upon the record. 

The case originated in November, 1958, when a Negro air force 

public relations man, Richard Henry, was not permitted to sit in the 

white waiting room at the Greenville airport while waiting for a 

flight to Detroit. Mr. Henry was returning to headquarters after 

having covered an extensive air force maneuver near Greenville. 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorneys who repre- 

sented Mr. Henry in the case were Lincoln C. Jenkins, Jr. of 

Columbia, South Carolina, and Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg of 

New York City. 

an30.=