Two-Year White School Forbidden to Expand

    efense und 

RELEASE 

EAR WHITE SCHOOL 

IDDEN TO EXPAND 

NEW YORK,N.Y.--On Wednesday, Mey 12, a U.S. District Court in 

Richmond, Virginia took an unprecedented step in ruling that 

hard Bland College, a predominantly white, two-year institution 

opened in 1960 by William and Mary College and located near 

Virginia, could not be escalated to a four-year, degree- 

giving institution. 

The suit against expansion of Richard Bland College, was 

brought by NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) 

attorneys on behalf of black high school students as well as black 

faculty members and students of Virginia State College -- a 

dominantly black institution -- located within seven miles of 

two-year school. 

During the argument, LDF attorneys Sam Tucker and Henry Marsh, 

III, both of Richmond, claimed that the expansion of Richard Bland, 

which has only 14 black students in its student body of 841, 

would only duplicate the educational efforts of Virginia State, 

which until t 1954 a decision was ail black and segregated 

Jack Greenberg - Director-Counse 



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SCHOOL FORBIDDEN TO .EXPAND 

jo
 

a racially identifiable dual system of higher education exists in 

Virginia today. Black students comprise approximately 12% of the 

enrollment in the state's 15 four-year colleges and graduate schools, 

yet 81% of them are concentrated in the two colleges which formerly 

were segregated by law. At the other end of the spectrum, only 

Virginia Commonwealth University has a black enrollment as high as 

7%, and in ten of the fifteen colleges and universities black 

students constitute less than 2% of the enrollment. The state 

also operates three two-year branches of other institutions. Of 

these, only one has a black enrollment of more than 8%." 

Continuing, Judge Butzner said, "despite some téstimony from 

William and Mary witnesses that white students would continue to 

enroll at Virginia State, we find that escalation of Bland would 

hamper Virginia State's efforts to desegregate its student body. 

The realities of the situation support this finding: the colleges 

are located close to each other; as four-year colleges they would 

offer substantially the same curricula; if Bland were escalated, 

white students would be more likely to seek their degrees at 

predominantly white Bland than at predominantly black Virginia 

State; and the part Bland now plays in sending some white students, 

to Virginia State for their last two years would substantially 

decrease...From the evidence, it is reasonable to infer, therefore, 

that the purpose and effect of Bland's escalation is to provide a 

four-year college for white students who reside nearby. There can 

be little doubt that this will contribute to the perpetuation of 

Virginia's dual system of higher education." 

The court further noted that only 51 of the 3,750 graduate 

students at William and Mary-College are black; that with the 

exception of one black graduate student who has a part-time 



* * PAGE THREE 

SCHOOL FORBIDDEN TO EX 

administrative position, all of its faculty and administrative 

staff are white; and that members of its Board of Visitors are 

white. Bland, the court said, “has never had a black faculty 

member," and not until 1970, "did its catalogue mention that it 

was open to all students, regardless of race." 

Virginia State, established in 1882, has since 1964 "actively 

pursued a policy of recruiting white students and faculty. Its 

admissions which until very recently was black, and its enrollment 

of 2,524 includes only 70 white students...The college has been 

more successful in obtaining white faculty, hiring 43 white teachers 

since 1964," the court said. - 

=30= 

For Further Information Contact: Sandra O'Gorman 
(212) 586-8397