Alabama Schools Must End Bias Next Fall

    age Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE iresrCounet 
egal efense und Jack Greenberg 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. FOR RELEASE ee 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 SATURDAY NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

March 25, 1967 

ALABAMA SCHOOLS MUST 
END BIAS NEXT FALL 

Miss. & Lo. Next LDF Targets 

MONTGOMERY---Alabama this week became the first southern state ordered 

by a federal court to desegregate all its public school districts. 

The court ordered 99 school districts to end segregation by next fall, 

This unprecedented action of the three judge federal court came 

in response to four years of litigation by attorneys of the NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). 

Alabama Gov. Luricen B. Wallace, State School Superintendent 

Ernest Stone and 10 other state officials were directed by the U. S. 

District Court in Mentyomery to "take affirmative action to dis- 

establish all state-enforced or encouraged public segregation." 

They were also told to “eliminate the effects of past. . - 

discrimination." 

LDF Director Counsel Jack Greenberg called the decision, "an 

important step in closing the doors to evasion of the Constitution 

and the desegregation guidelines of the Department of Health, Educa- 

tion and Welfare. 

“We plan to follow this up in those hard core states where 

massive resistance remains the order of the day, particularly 

Mississippi, Louisiana and S.W. Georgia," he said. 

This injunction marks the first time since the Supreme Court's 

desegregation ruling of 1954 that an entire state has been placed 

under a single injunction to end school segregation, Mr. Greenberg 

added, 

The Court ruled that Gov. Wallace and other state officials have 

“through their control and influence over local school boards flouted 

every effort to make the 14th amendment a meaningful reality to Negro 

school children in Alabama." 

The Federal Court said that Gov. Wallace and other state offi- 

cials had used two chief means of encouraging loca] Alabama school 

boards to resist integration: 

(more) 

25 



ALABAMA SCHOOLS MUST 

END BIAS NEXT FALL March 25, 1967 

* "They ysed their authority as a threat and as a means 

of punishment to prevent local school officials . « - 

to desegregate schools," 

* "They have performed their own functions in such a way 

as to mnintain and preserve the racial characteristics 

of the system." 

LDF attorneys based their case on the successful argument that 

Gov, Wallace and other defendants: 

* Exercised their pervasive powers to frustrate local 

officials who attempted to integrate schools. 

Controlled school finances and fiscal policies in a 

manner that maintained and promcted segregation. 

Controlied instructional programs and policies in a 

manrer that maintained and promoted segregation. 

Controlled school construction and consolidation programs 

and policies in a manner that maintained and promoted 

segregation. 

Controlled school transportation programs and policies 

in a manner that maintained and promoted segregation. 

LDF attorneys participating in the Case were Fred D. Gray of 

Montgomery; and, Mr. Greenberg, Charles ii. Jones, Jr., Melvyn Zarr 

and Henry M, Aronson, all of New York City. 

-30-