LDF Supports Recommendations to Halt Black Teacher Dismissals in South

    APRIL 5, 1971 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

LDF SUPPORTS RECOMMENDATIONS TO HALT 

BLACK TEACHER DISMISSALS IN SOUTH 

NEW ORLEANS, LA.--Attorneys for Georgia's black school children, 

assisted by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

(LDF), today filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 

Fifth Circuit supporting suggestions recently made by the National 

Education Association (NEA) to that court requesting it to take 

immediate action to protect the jobs of black school teachers and 

principals. 

NEA's analysis of school district reports for the past three 

years revealed that, while over 5,000 white teachers and administrators 

had been hired in the last three years in Southern states comprising 

the Fifth Circuit -- Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, 

Mississippi and Texas -- over 1,000 black educators were dismissed. 

Ironically, many of these dismissals are known to be directly 

related to economies realized by the elimination of segregated 

school systems. 

NEA recommendations to the court asked: 

that reductions in teaching force 

tied directly to such desegregation 

economies be made only on the basis 

of seniority. 

that where teachers are dismissed “for 

cause" school districts be required to 

recruit and hire substitutes of the same 

race. 

THE NEA and LDF briefs also point out the failure of the 

Fifth Circuit's "Singleton" decree of December, 1969, to protect 

black educators from wholesale dismissal. The Singleton decision 

required that teachers dismissed during the process of desegregation 

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(AACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10019 | (212) 586-8397 

William T. Coleman, Jr. - President Jack Greenberg - Director-Counsel 



LDF AGAINST BLACK TEACHER 

DISMISSALS 

PAGE TWO 

be selected according to objective criteria and impartial comparison 

of qualifications. 

The brief which was filed today by the black students and 

their parents agreed with these suggestions, terming the pattern 

of dismissals across the South "decimation." It states that 

experience demonstrates the fact that courts are unsuited to 

ferret out the truth among the "welter of conflicting testimony and 

opinion, charges and countercharges after the fact" which often 

accompanies dismissal of black professional staff. It notes that 

even the "Singleton" decree gives administrators a free hand in 

reviving old or personal complaints about individual teachers as 

a basis for dismissals "for cause," whether or not the charges are 

related to job performance or not. 

Recognizing the common argument that black teachers are less 

qualified than whites, the brief considers the multiple discriminations 

which black teachers have suffered but disputes the conclusion 

"that black teachers as a class were more poorly prepared or less 

competent than their white counterparts ... It is a tribute to black 

teachers that despite the conditions outlined above, and the 

restrictions placed upon them they overcame obstacles and emerged 

as resourceful, effective and sympathetic teachers and administrators." 

The brief supports the suggestions of the NEA and asks the 

court "to act firmly and providently to spare from further 

discrimination and harassment those who have already borne for so 

long the fruits of racial prejudice and hatred." 

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Norman Chachkin or 

Sandy O'Gorman 

(212) “586-8397