Richmond School Board v Board of Education of Virginia Brief Amicus Curiae
Public Court Documents
March 1, 1973
21 pages
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Brief Collection, LDF Court Filings. Richmond School Board v Board of Education of Virginia Brief Amicus Curiae, 1973. 3f5a9d37-c29a-ee11-be36-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/8ec6fe72-6a32-4411-80ec-1b337382486c/richmond-school-board-v-board-of-education-of-virginia-brief-amicus-curiae. Accessed December 05, 2025.
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In the
©curt of tljT United States
October Term, 1972
Nos. 72-549 and 72-550
Richmond School B oard, et al.,
Petitioners,
T he State B oard of Education of the
Commonwealth of V irginia, et al.,
Respondents.
Carolyn B radley, et al.,
— V .— :
Petitioners,
The State B oard of E ducation of the
Commonwealth of V irginia, et al.,
____ _ Respondents.
on writ of certiorari to the united states court of appeals
for the fourth circuit
BRIEF OF AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
AND AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
OF VIRGINIA, AMICUS CURIAE
R ichard F alcon
500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
David B ogen
500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Melvin L. W ulf
Sanford Jay R osen
American Civil Liberties Union
22 East 40th Street
New York, New York 10016
P hilip H irschkop
P. O. Box 234
110 N. Royal Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22313
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae
I N D E X
Interest of Amicus Curiae ................................................ 2
A rgument ................................................................................ 3
I. The children of metropolitan Richmond are de
nied equal educational opportunity because their
schools are racially segregated............................... 3
II. The State of Virginia has denied plaintiffs the
equal protection of the law s................................. 7
A. The State Has Created the Segregated School
System ................ 7
B. The School Boundary Lines Are Unconstitu
tional Because They Operate to Discriminate
on the Basis of Race and Are Not Justified
by a Compelling State Interest..................... 8
C. The State Cannot Use Political Boundary
Lines to Limit the Federal Courts’ Remedial
Power Because the State Has Caused the
Division of the Races by Those L ines........... 13
Conclusion........................ 16
Table of A uthorities
Cases:
Brewer v. School Board of City of Norfolk, 397 F.2d
37 (4th Cir. 1968) ................. 9
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) ....3,4, 6,
8,14
PAGE
II
Clark v. Board of Education of Little Rock, 426 F.2d
1035 (8th Cir. 1970) ........................................................ 9
Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958) ............................... 15
Davis v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile
County, 402 U.S. 33 (1971) ....... .......................... . 9
Glaston County v. United States, 395 U.S. 285 (1969) .... 10
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County,
391 U.S. 430 (1968) ......................... ...... ’....................... 4
Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971) .......10,13
Hawkins v. Town of Shaw, 437 F.2d 1286 (5th Cir.
1971) .................................................................................. 9
Henry v. Clarksdale Municipal Separate School Dis
trict, 409 F.2d 682 (5th Cir.), cert, denied, 396 U.S.
940 (1969) ........................................................................ 9
Jackson v. Godwin, 400 F.2d 529 (5th Cir. 1968) ........... 9
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) ............................. 11
McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964) ..... 11
Monroe v. Bd. of Comm’rs of Jackson, 427 F.2d 1005
(6th Cir. 1970) ................................................................ 9
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education,
402 U.S. 1 (1971) .................................................7,13,14,15
United States v. Greenwood Municipal Separate School
District, 406 F.2d 1086 (5th Cir.), cert, denied, 395
U.S. 907 (1969) .............................................................. 9
PAGE
United States v. Indianola Municipal Separate School
District, 410 F.2d 626 (5th Cir. 1969) ....................... 15
United States v. Scotland Neck, 92 S. Ct. 2214 (1972) .... 11
Wright v. City of Emporia, 407 U.S. 451 (1972) ........... 11
Constitutional Provisions:
United States Constitution
Thirteenth Amendment.............................................. 2
Fourteenth Amendment .......................... ............. 2, 8,15
Fifteenth Amendment ....... 2
Federal Statute
Title AMI of the Civil Plights Act of 1964 ....... ........... 10
State Statute
Ya. Code §22-30 ....... ....................................................... 7
Other Authorities:
Cahn, Law in the Consumer Perspective, 112 U. Pa. L.
Eev. 1 (1963) .................................................................... 4
Cahn, The Predicament of Democratic Man (1961) .... 4
Ill
PAGE
I n th e
(Emtrt nf % Imfrd l&atea
October Term, 1972
Nos. 72-549 and 72-550
R ichmond School B oard, et al.,
Petitioners,
T he State B oard of E ducation of the
Commonwealth of V irginia, et al.,
Respondents.
Carolyn Bradley, et al.,
—v.-
Petitioners,
T he State B oard of Education of the
Commonwealth of V irginia, et al.,
Respondents.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
BRIEF OF AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
AND AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
OF VIRGINIA, AMICUS CURIAE
2
Interest of Amicus Curiae
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of
Virginia have secured the consent of the parties to the filing
of the attached brief amicus curiae. The letters of consent
have been filed with the Clerk.
The American Civil Liberties Union is a nation-wide non
partisan organization of over 180,000 members dedicated
solely to preservation of the liberties safeguarded by the
Bill of Rights and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to
the United States Constitution. The American Civil Liber
ties Union of Virginia is a state affiliate of the ACLU.
The ACLU and the ACLU of Virginia have been particu
larly concerned with the pervasive effects of racial discrimi
nation and segregation on American society. They partici
pate in numerous law suits challenging racial discrimina
tion and segregation. They take the position that effective
racial integration of the public schools is a necessary pre
requisite to the full and equal protection of the laws for
Americans of all races and colors.
In this brief, the ACLU and the ACLU of Virginia pro
vide additional focus on the issues in this case which go well
beyond the facts of the particular case. They hope thereby
to place these issues in the larger perspective.
3
ARGUMENT
This latest aspect of an old school desegregation snit in
volves the equitable powers of the federal courts to give
full and meaningful relief against the continued effects of
de jure school segregation. Within its record, the case pre
sents questions concerning the power of federal courts to
fashion remedies that consolidate school systems that are
separated by lines drawn by state government to secure
non-education interests. For in this case, the petitioners
were ordered by the District Court below to consolidate, for
the purpose of creating a unitary integrated school system,
the effectively segregated separate school systems of the
City of Richmond and the adjacent Chesterfield and Hen
rico counties. The Court of Appeals reversed. In this brief
we take the position that the decision of the District Court
was eminently sound—indeed it is required by the princi
ples contained in decisions of this Court—and it should
be reinstated.
I.
The children of metropolitan Richmond are denied
equal educational opportunity because their schools are
racially segregated.
“ Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954).
“ To separate [black students] . . . generates a feeling of
inferiority as to their status in the community that may
affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be
undone. . . . Segregation with the sanction of law, there
fore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental
4
development of Negro children and to deprive them of some
of the benefits they would receive in a racial [ly] integrated
school system.” Id. at 494.
We submit that at the heart of the Brown principle is
what Edmund Cahn once labeled as the “ consumer perspec
tive,” Cahn, Law in the Consumer Perspective, 112 U. Pa.
L. R ev . 1 (1963); Cahn, The Predicament of Democratic
Man (1961). The “ consumer perspective” simply insists
that the most valid judgment which can be given about
institutions is given by those people whom they are in
tended to serve—i.e., the “ consumer” of that institution’s
services; in this case, black students of segregated schools.
If schools are identifiably “black” or “white,” if they
are more than “ just schools,” Green v. County School
Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430, 442 (1968), the
injury so zealously to be guarded against under Brown
occurs. And the identifiability of schools, together with
the resultant injury occasioned by them, is largely a matter
of a child’s perception. If a child can say (or see or feel)
“ This is one of Richmond’s black schools—and this is one
of Richmond’s white schools,” the school is, within the
meaning of Brown and its progeny, a segregated school.
Given the factual context of this case, a child attending
any metropolitan Richmond school knows whether his
school is a white one or a black one. He also probably
lives within a half hour of the center of the city. Either
his parents or his neighbor’s parents work within the city
limits. No matter where he lives in the metropolitan area,
the child will go to the hospital in the center of the city
if he is ill, and his parents are likely to go into the city
center for entertainment. There are no definite natural
5
geographical boundary lines which divide up the city, and
the political lines constantly shift with each new annex
ation. The only clear physical demarcation between vari
ous parts of the metropolitan area is that people living
near the center of the city are predominantly black and
people living further away are predominantly white; or,
to put it in terms of the child’s perspective—people living
near the center attend “black” schools, and people living
further away attend “white” schools.
The population of the metropolitan Richmond area is
approximately 33% black and 67% white, and this ratio
has remained fairly constant over the past decade. If a
child were in a school with a similar proportion of black
and white students, he would not perceive it as “black”
or “white” but as reflecting the metropolitan Richmond
society in which he lives. Thus, if we assume that only
schools with student bodies of 20-40% black would reflect
Richmond society and thus would not be identifiable by
the child as a “white” school or a “ black” school, all the
high school students and 90% of all elementary and middle
school students attend schools in the metropolitan Rich
mond area identifiable by them as “black” or “white.” The
social cohesiveness of the metropolitan area and physical
proximity further assure such identification. Often high
schools with a student body which is more than 75% black
are located within four miles of high schools which are
more than 80% white.
The black child, the “ consumer,” who attends schools
in Richmond perceives well enough that the schools are
either “black” or “white” schools. And it cannot be said
that the child’s perception is incorrect. The State of Vir
ginia has historically used every means within its control
6
to assure whites that their schools will remain white and
to convince blacks that they will never attend any bnt
black schools. Given this history, the State’s latest refusal
to desegregate its schools effectively is hardly surprising.
Thus, until the remedial hearings in this case were pend
ing, Virginia could and often did ignore political subdi
vision boundaries in setting up school districts. And the
State exercised this power for every reason conceivable,
including the furthering of segregation. When it was sug
gested that Virginia again exercise this power, but now to
aid desegregation, the State responded by legislation pur
porting to divest itself of authority to act.
Nineteen years after Brown, not only today’s black
school children but their parents who were themselves
school children in 1954 cannot help but understand full
well the State’s position when they take their children to
one of “ Richmond’s” black schools. Despite promises,
claims and hopes to the contrary, nothing can more elo
quently remind them of “ their place” than escorting their
child to a school that remains what it always was—a black
school designed to serve black children.
When almost every school in an area can be seen to be
a “ black” school or a “ white” school, it is obvious that the
schools are segregated. That this segregation is caused
by the state’s maintenance of evanescent boundaries does
not alter the child’s perception, his injury or the segre
gation. Indeed, plaintiffs produced a number of witnesses
to testify to the actual educational harm done by this
separation of the races. However, such evidence should
not have been necessary because this Court has recognized
for almost two decades that “ Separate educational facilities
are inherently unequal.” Brown v. Board of Education,
supra, 347 U.S. at 495.
7
The State of Virginia has denied plaintiffs the equal
protection of the laws.
A. The State Has Created the Segregated School System.
State law creates and defines the boundaries of cities
and counties. Such boundaries are often useful for the
administration of many matters, but they need not coincide
with school division boundaries. In fact, when this suit
was instituted, there were a number of school divisions
which included several political units in Virginia, and Vir
ginia law permitted the State Board to consolidate school
districts even if consolidation overlapped such political
lines. Metropolitan school districts overlapping political
lines are not uncommon elsewhere. For example, the City
of Charlotte, North Carolina, and the County of Mecklen
burg comprise a single school system. See Swann v.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1
(1971). Nevertheless, after institution of this litigation,
Virginia state law was changed and now requires the State
Board to divide the state into school divisions according
to county and city boundary lines, unless the school boards
and governing bodies of the political units affected agree
to a joint school division. Va. Code sec. 22-30. To the
extent that the State has delegated to local officials the
power to determine the boundaries of the administrative
units for schools, the exercise of those powers is still the
State’s responsibility and they must be exercised in con
formity with the state’s constitutional obligations. Regard
less of the legal mechanism, the result of that exercise
of power in this case is clear—segregated schools. Having
II.
8
created a segregated school system and having refused to
exercise that power in a manner that would desegregate
it, the State of Virginia and the Counties of Henrico and
Chesterfield and the City of Richmond have violated their
constitutional duty under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The question in this case, therefore, is not whether state
action has resulted in a segregated school system—that
clearly has occurred. Rather, the question is, having acted
in such a manner as to segregate the races in fact, can the
State demonstrate justification of a sufficiently compelling
nature so as to excuse the effects of its actions? If such
justification does not exist, then the school system is
segregated within the meaning of Brown and the equity
powers of the District Court below were properly applied
to remedy the resultant segregation.
The Court of Appeals did not discuss this question. Ap
plying the wrong legal rules, they instead deemed the rele
vant question to be the existence or non-existence of “ racial
motivation” or “ segregative intent” as an explanation for
the Respondents’ behavior. This was error.
B. The School Boundary Lines Are Unconstitutional Because
They Operate to Discriminate on the Basis of Race and
Are TSot Justified by a Compelling State Interest.
Although there are sometimes no obvious criteria for
drawing lines, it is still useful to draw a line. This is the
case with the political boundary lines in the Richmond area.
There are no natural geographical boundaries dividing the
area, and the lines which are imposed are flexible and sub
ject to constant change through annexation proceedings.
These lines are drawn to facilitate various political and
social functions. But the criteria on which the lines are
9
based are arbitrary, at least in the sense of whimsical.
Such arbitrary lines are properly viewed with suspicion
when their effect is to disadvantage blacks. Thus, courts
have not permitted school attendance lines to be drawn
around a residentially segregated neighborhood when other
attendance zones are just as feasible. Brewer v. School
Board of City of Norfolk, 397 F.2d 37 (4th Cir. 1968).
Even attendance zones which follow natural or historical
boundaries have been struck down when they operate to
separate the races. See Henry v. Clarksdale Municipal
■Separate School District, 409 F.2d 682 (5th Cir.), cert,
denied, 396 U.S. 940 (1969); United States v. Greenwood
Municipal Separate School District, 406 F.2d 1086 (5th
Cir.), cert, denied, 395 U.S. 907 (1969); Clark v. Board of
Education of Little Bock, 426 F.2d 1035 (8th Cir. 1970);
and Monroe v. Bd. of Comm’rs of Jackson, 427 F.2d 1005
(6th Cir. 1970). See also Davis v. Board of School Com
missioners of Mobile County, 402 U.S. 33 (1971).
If the effect of the line drawing is racial segregation
and the justification is weak, there is no need to probe
the psychological motivation of a legislature and determine
whether there was in fact a racial purpose. Anyone in
volved in such a classification will readily perceive that
they are treated unequally, and courts will agree with the
perception. See Jackson v. Godwin, 400 F.2d 529 (5th
Cir. 1968); Hawkins v. Town of Shaw, 437 F.2d 1286 (5th
Cir. 1971).
Where the effect of a classification is to separate the
races, persons subject to the classification are likely to be
severely harmed regardless of whether the classification
was overtly on racial grounds or not. They should not be
put to the burden of demonstrating an actual racial mo
10
tive7 intent or purpose. Further, it may prove impossible
to prevent deliberate racial discrimination if the discrimi
nator need only cite some rational basis not directly and
obviously connected with race to support his action. Indi
viduals and states then need only search for a slight ap
parent nonracial basis to continue segregation as before.
Unless the state is forced to demonstrate substantial rea
sons for action which has a racial effect adverse to minority
group members, the state can continue a policy of segre
gation behind a facade of neutrality.
This Court has construed statutes prohibiting racial
discrimination in voting and employment from this per
spective. See Gaston County v. United States, 395 U.S.
285 (1969). In Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424
(1971), an employer used a standardized test for hiring
and promotion decisions. The district court found there
was no racial purpose or invidious intent in adopting the
test although whites generally did better than blacks in
taking it, and by a split decision the Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals affirmed. Nevertheless, this Court found that
the use of the test violated Title YII of the Civil Eights
Act of 1964 which made it unlawful for an employer “ to
limit, segregate, or classify his employees in any way which
would deprive . . . any individual of employment oppor
tunities . . . because of such individual’s race.” The Court
ruled that an employment test could be used only if it was
in fact related to performance of the job, and that the
employer’s motive in using the test was not the significant
question.
The issue in cases of racial discrimination thus at least
becomes whether the classification or boundary line that
operates to discriminate against blacks is justified by a
1 1
compelling non-racial state interest. See e.g., Loving v.
Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 9 (1967); McLaughlin v. Florida, 379
U.S. 184 (1964).
In the instant case, when effect rather than “ intent” is
considered, and when Virginia’s professed “ justifications”
are weighed to determine their compelling nature, it be
comes clear that consolidation of these school districts is
not beyond the remedial powers of a federal district court.
Indeed, as Judge Winter pointed out in dissent below, this
case is but the “ obverse of the same coin” presented in
the companion cases of Wright v. City of Emporia, 407
U.S. 451 (1972) and United States v. Scotland Neck, 92
S. Ct. 2214 (1972). There, as here, the Court of Appeals
below applied the incorrect test—“ segregative intent.” In
those cases the Court of Appeals permitted one district to
be “ split” into two school districts, ignoring all the while
the segregative effects of such splitting. There, as here,
focus on “ segregative intent” rather than on “ effect” led
the Court of Appeals to conclude that no constitutional
deprivation resulted despite demonstrable segregative ef
fect. This Court reversed, holding that effect, not intent,
was the proper test and that choice of a less effective
alternative to desegregate schools in the face of available
and proven effective alternatives placed a heavy burden
of justification on the state. There, as here, no such com
pelling justification can be professed.
Whatever the State of Virginia’s interest in maintaining
the political boundary lines of Richmond City, Henrico
County and Chesterfield County, it has no compelling in
terest in utilizing those lines for school administrative
zones which result in segregated schools.
12
First, the State ignored political boundary lines to im
plement its earlier policy of segregation. From 1940
through 1968 at least four regional all-black schools were
operated in the State. During this period many Virginia
children were bused across county lines because the near
est school of their race was located in another county.
Further, the State’s tuition grant system enabled children
to transfer out of their county school into one elsewhere,
even in another state, where the children were of the same
race.
Second, political boundary lines have often been ignored
in the past to further other educational purposes. Bieh-
mond, Henrico and Chesterfield have cooperated in a train
ing center for mentally retarded children and, with two
other counties, in operating a mathematics-science center.
On January 3, 1968, the State Board of Education resolved
that “ effective consolidation of school divisions is a pre
requisite to quality public education in many areas of the
state.” Bedford County and Bedford City were thus al
lowed to form a single school division. Fairfax City and
Fairfax County, while remaining separate school divisions,
operate together under a contract with the County edu
cating the city children.
The historic practice of combining several political sub
divisions into one school division demonstrates that there
is no compelling reason to maintain separate school dis
tricts and that the State of Virginia has not in the past
considered the reasons offered in this case to be “ com
pelling.” Separate districts are clearly not necessary to
give residents a voice in the education of their children.
Nor are they necessary to assure the taxpayer that his
money is being used for schools which his children attend.
13
The contract method of joint operation would also assure
the taxpayer that his moneys went to the education of his
children. Since there is no compelling reason to maintain
these school boundary lines which separate children by
race, they should be struck down.
C. The State Cannot Use Political Boundary Lines to Limit
the Federal Courts’ Remedial Power Because the State Has
Caused the Division of the Races by Those Lines.
Virginia has for many years operated a dual system in
all the schools of the state. “Because they are Negroes,
petitioners have long received inferior education in seg
regated schools, and this Court expressly recognized these
differences in Gaston County v. United States.” Griggs v.
Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. at 430. As the trial judge
pointed out in this case, inferior education leads to re
stricted job opportunities; unskilled employment leads to
restricted ability to choose a home. Thus, the segregated
schools of the past started a pattern which largely re
stricts blacks to the center of the urban area. Assuming
therefore that there was no significant racial distinction
when the boundary lines were drawn, the state policy of
segregated education throughout most of this century has
helped create the racial division which the lines now mark.
Segregated schools also contributed to the present pat
terns of residential segregation in other ways. “People
gravitate toward school facilities, just as schools are lo
cated in response to the needs of people. The location of
schools may thus influence the patterns of residential de
velopment of a metropolitan area and have important im
pact on composition of inner city neighborhoods.” Swann
v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S.
at 20-21.
14
The State of Virginia contributed to the creation of resi
dential segregation in many other ways as well. The State
for many years enforced restrictive covenants, thereby
encouraging people to impose them on the land to such an
extent that much of the land in the metropolitan Richmond
area today has restrictive covenants in earlier deeds. No
tation of such a covenant was still common in title searches
until within the last few years, even though the covenant
could not be constitutionally enforced. Public housing was
sited and occupied on the basis of race until recently. The
counties provided schools, roads, zoning and development
approval for the rapid growth of the white population in
the county at the expense of the city, without making any
attempt to assure that the development it made possible
was integrated.
Even when state law no longer required absolute racial
separation in the schools, and the massive resistance of
Virginia to the court orders in Brown v. Board of Educa
tion had diminished, schools were still sited to produce
segregation. As the trial judge found, “ Construction in
both counties has tended to correspond with the develop
ment of white and black residential areas, and in fact was
so intended. . . . New construction was planned for black
schools in the county without regard to the possibility of
accommodating an expanding black pupil population in
white schools.” These acts in furtherance of segregated
schools are within the power of the district court to correct.
See Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education,
supra.
The State ignored the boundary lines dividing the city
from the counties in pursuing a policy of school and resi
15
dential segregation which ultimately drove the blacks into
the city and the whites into the counties. It should not be
permitted to use a boundary ignored to create segregation
in order to frustrate remedial measures for the earlier
segregation. See United States v. Indianola Municipal Sep
arate School District, 410 F.2d 626 (5th Cir. 1969).
It is encouraging to the principles of the Fourteenth
Amendment that the state has not by its policies made
integration impossible. The order of the trial judge demon
strates that feasible remedial measures can be implemented.
See Swann v. Charlotte-Mechlenburg Board of Education,
supra. The area involved is not so great nor is the addi
tional transportation so significant as to hamper the educa
tion process if this Court affirms the consolidation order.
Indeed, it is noteworthy that the strongest resistance to this
order comes from the counties (the City of Richmond is
a party plaintiff) where busing is commonplace because of
the lower population density. But State-created segregation
should not be tolerated, especially where its justification
lies in arbitrary lines whose specific location serves only to
mark off areas according to race. Nor should the mandate
of the Constitution be circumvented because of any public
outcry over court orders. See Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1
(1958).
1 6
CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated in this brief, as well as in the
opinion of the district court below, the judgment of
the court below should be reversed.
Respectfully submitted,
R ichard F alcon
500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
David B ogen
500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Melvin L. W ule
Sanford Jay R osen
American Civil Liberties Union
22 East 40th Street
New York, New York 10016
P hilip H irschkop
P. O. Box 234
110 N. Royal Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22313
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae
March 1973
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