Alabama Schools Must End Bias Next Fall
Press Release
March 25, 1967

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Press Releases, Volume 4. Alabama Schools Must End Bias Next Fall, 1967. 6be60aac-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/b8bcc498-c1e7-4d98-9a0a-7fc41614e4b1/alabama-schools-must-end-bias-next-fall. Accessed April 27, 2025.
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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-