A suit involving 170 Negro students was filled last week in the federal district court against the Durham Board of Education…

Press Release
May 3, 1960

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A suit involving 170 Negro students was filled last week in the federal district court against the Durham Board of Education… preview

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. A suit involving 170 Negro students was filled last week in the federal district court against the Durham Board of Education…, 1960. 962a569f-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/9e144f67-230d-4fd6-9edf-076dfa4a3322/a-suit-involving-170-negro-students-was-filled-last-week-in-the-federal-district-court-against-the-durham-board-of-education. Accessed July 16, 2025.

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE «+ NEW YORK 19,N. Y. + JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS oa THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

May 3, 1960 

NEW YORK. -- A suit involving 170 Negro students was filed last 

week in the federal district court against the Durham Board of Educa- 

tion, This is the largest number of plaintiffs in a single legal 

action brought against a school system since the Supreme Court 1954 

decree outlawing segregation in public education. 

The Durham Board of Education is accused of using the North 

Carolina Pupil Placement laws to maintain and operate segregated 

schools by assignment on the basis of race. The North Carolina Pupil 

Placement statutes give local school officials the authority to 

assign school children on the basis of various vague factors. 

The suit charges the school board with making assignments on the 

basis of 2 school zones--one for white and another for Negro students. 

It also accuses school officials of operating 2 segregated school 

systems. 

The school board has not applied the state pupil placement 

statutes as a means of abolishing state-imposed racial distinctions, 

the court was told in the complaint filed here today. Nor have the 

school authorities advanced a "genuine method" for desegregating the 

city's public schools, the complaint charged. 

The complaint was filed on behalf of 170 Negro children by NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorneys. It asked the court to 

issue a decree enjoining the school board officials from assigning 

the students to any school other than the one to which they would 

be assigned if they were white. It also asked the court to direct 

the scheol officials to cease operating segregated schools and to 

presen* a complete desegregation plan within a time set by the court. 

The action today resulted from refusal of the school board to 

grant requests of 217 Negro students who sought reassignment from 

all-Negro schcols to schools nearer their homes. 



=O5 

At the hearing at which 170 students applied for change of 

assignment, 85 personally appeared. Those who did not personally 

appear were represented by counsel. The board rejected those who did 

not appear because they were not present. It rejected the others 

without any explanation. 

Originally 225 sought reassignment before the 1959-60 school 

term. Eight were reassigned and the other 217 were required to cor- 

tinue attendance at the all-Negro schools. 

Attorneys for the Negroes are Lincoln C. Jenkins of Columbia 

South Carolina and Matthew J. Perry of Spartanburg, South Carolina, 

Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg of the NAACP Legal Defense Fur.” 

tle-f in New York City.

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A suit involving 170 Negro students was filled last week in the federal district court against the Durham Board of Education…

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