Statement by J. Greenberg on HEW School Desegregation
Press Release
March 8, 1966
Cite this item
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Press Releases, Volume 3. Statement by J. Greenberg on HEW School Desegregation, 1966. f05553d2-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/9c591543-38d4-495d-ac50-4ea294378713/statement-by-j-greenberg-on-hew-school-desegregation. Accessed November 23, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle
New York, N.Y. 10019
JUdson 6-8397
Legal Defense and Educational Fund
PRESS RELEASE
President
Hon.-Francis E. Rivers
Director-Counsel
Jack Greenberg
Statement by Jack Greenberg on HEW School Desegregation
Guidelines, Tuesday, March 8, 1966, NAACP Legal Defense & Edi Fund
The new guidelines' effectiveness in desegregating %
public schools will depend fundamentally on whether the Adminds= ‘
tration is willing to make a powerful political commi tna Mee
om manpower and funds to achieve desegregation. We have had ne
encouragement in this area.
Paper promises over the past decade have meant nothing
because unfortunately local school officials have not hesitated
to lies Enforcing the guidelines, even with a great commitment
of appropriations and manpower, will nevertheless be difficult
because of their complexity, permissiveness in many areas, and
wide scope of exceptions.
The exception which permits school boards which have been
operating under court orders to continue as in the past, even
though such orders fall far short of the guidelines, is
extremely unfortunate,
Millions of children in every major city in the South
and many small towns and rural areas in which the Negro
community is most active now are covered by court orders entered
well before the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Negroes will be paying a penalty for insistence upon
their civil rights in the fifties and early sixties. The only
remedy which the guidelines offer is that victims of
segregation can go back to court.
Beyond that, we fail to see specific standards for
eliminating gerrymandering, selection of school sites for new
construction or expansion of existing facilities, favorite
tactics of districts that want to continue segregation far into
the future,
Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 RIverside 9-8487 So
Statement by Jack Greenberg
Tuesday, March 8, 1966 ,
We ate shocked by the admitted total failure to treat
northern segregation erouiene: re
We are happy, however, that finally the Depaeenent has ©
Tetreated from its position that it can do nothing about the
wanton firing of Negro teachers and has adopted a regulation
forbidding it.
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