Fund Sues 8 Virginia Counties in School Integration Effort
Press Release
March 20, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 2. Fund Sues 8 Virginia Counties in School Integration Effort, 1965. 6d1b50ce-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/9aaf81b1-37f3-465a-8069-7d5e1926f06c/fund-sues-8-virginia-counties-in-school-integration-effort. Accessed April 22, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10019 JUdson 6-8397 NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund PRESS RELEASE President MME E z Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Hopi teme es —— ’ Director-Counsel March 20, 1965 Jack Greenberg FUND SUES 8 VIRGINIA COUNTIES IN SCHOOL INTEGRATION EFFORT RICHHIOND, VA.--A massive state-wide campaign to end racial disctimination in Virginia's public schools got underway here this. week as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund brought actions against eight counties. In the state where "massive resistance" to the 1954 Supreme Court ruling has been both slogan and reality, Legal Defense Fund lawyers sought sweeping injunctions that would require the adoption and implementation of desegregation plans in Amelia, New Kent, Greenville, Charles City, Middlesex, Gloucester, Hanover and Brunswick Counties. The last named county is the home of Governor Albertis S. Harrison, Jr., a staunch foe of integration attempts, Two other counties and three Virginia cities have begun desegre- gation under court edicts secured by Legel Defense Fund suits. School boards in the eight counties were petitioned Vast year by scores of Negro citizens to end public school “segregation. When the petitions went unheeded, the court actions were undertaken. In each of the suits, Legal Defense Fund lawyers asked 4 the Federal District Court to enjoin the school boards from: ..efailing to implement plans providing for prompt integration; «+easSigning teachers and administrative per- sonnel on a racial basis; «+eplacing pupils in classrooms inva biased manner; ++eproceeding with school construction pro- grams designed to perpetuate segregation. Suits seeking desegregation plans in numerous other Virginia counties are expected in the near future. PENS ey Attorneys in this week's actions are S. W. Tucker, Henry L. Marsh III, and Willard Douglas of Richmond; and James MM, Nabrit III, and Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg of New York City. -30- Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Inf ion—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss