Memorandum from Lani Guinier to Debbie Fins Re Virginia Voting Case; Memorandum from Phyllis McClure to Julius Chambers Re: James City County/Williamsburg

Correspondence
October 4, 1985 - October 14, 1985

Cite this item

Memorandum from Lani Guinier to Debbie Fins Re Virginia Voting Case; Memorandum from Phyllis McClure to Julius Chambers Re: James City County/Williamsburg preview

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at

Collection
- Legal Department General
Creator
- Lani Guinier and others
Taxonomy
Identifier
- 402463d5-e892-ee11-be37-6045bdeb8873

Cite this item

Legal Department General, Lani Guinier Correspondence. Memorandum from Lani Guinier to Debbie Fins Re Virginia Voting Case; Memorandum from Phyllis McClure to Julius Chambers Re: James City County/Williamsburg, 1985. 402463d5-e892-ee11-be37-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/b85368f7-9534-4e69-bbfb-02c0922c6693/memorandum-from-lani-guinier-to-debbie-fins-re-virginia-voting-case-memorandum-from-phyllis-mcclure-to-julius-chambers-re-james-city-countywilliamsburg. Accessed August 19, 2025.

Copied!

    T/1.^o f,o^
Lani Guinier

October 14, 1985

To: Debbie Fins

Re: Virginia Voting Case

Please Iet Phyllis know You are
Iooking into the voting angIe.
See attached memorandum.

LG/r
Attach



Y,EMORANDL]M

TO : Julius Chambers

FROM: Phyllis McClure \':,
SUBJ: James City County,/Witliamsburg

DATE: Octobet 4, 1985

I have done the following re Dr. Thomas Shield's reguest for help
on school and related issues.

I. Dr. Shields came to our office to meet with black parents who
are active in school affairs in Fairfax County (Virginia) and Prince
Georges County (Maryland) along with two people from the Mid-Atlantic
Race Equity Center at American University who are acting in their
private capacity. The parents gave Dr. Shields excellent suggestions
and advice. The seven of us decided to constitute ourselves as
the Williamsburg Group. Each of us has taken on specific assignments
to aid Dr. Shields, and The Group will meet again on October 29
in llashington

2. I spoke to Gwen Jones Jackson about the Virginia statute that
requires appointed school boards. Gwen says that blacks have always
opposed changing the law in the belief that they get more representa-
tion by appointment than they would by election. She thinks, however,
that the Virginia N$ACP may be reevaluating its position, a topic
ttrat qill be discusded at the forthcoming state-wide meeting in
Nor fol k .

3. I discussed the matter with Oscar Blayton at Airlie. Oscar comes
from williamsburg, practices in Hampton and is wilJ.ing to get in-
vol ved .

4. I referred Shields to Jackson and Blayton.

5. I arn assisting Shields in collecting information about the schools,
of which he has very little. The Virginia State Department of Education
no longer coLlects any data by race. The last OCR surve)'that picked
up this school district was 1918. Shields has had some success with
the Superintendent; the information is being mailed to me for distri-
bution to The Group.

5. I cin't tell yet whether we have a potent ial law su j.t and if
so on which grounds, i.e. pupil assignment. Without a lot more in-
formation, I also cannot tell if there is a voting rights case.
The county commissioner and city council members are elected by
district. A Freedom of Information Act request should be filed to
see what Justice has.
I will keep you posted.
cc: Lani Guinierr,/

Elaine Jones
Barry Goldstein

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Memorandum from Lani Guinier to Debbie Fins Re Virginia Voting Case; Memorandum from Phyllis McClure to Julius Chambers Re: James City County/Williamsburg

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in