New Jersey School Desegregation Case Seen as Major Breakthrough

Press Release
June 25, 1971

Cite this item

New Jersey School Desegregation Case Seen as Major Breakthrough 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
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- 3f29c488-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Volume 6. New Jersey School Desegregation Case Seen as Major Breakthrough, 1971. 3f29c488-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/daf08d57-aff2-435f-8d7c-9bfb1fd1a766/new-jersey-school-desegregation-case-seen-as-major-breakthrough. Accessed December 04, 2025.

Copied!

PressRelease Bt ime am

June 25, 1971
For Immediate Release

NEW JERSEY SCHOOL DESEGREGATION CASE
SEEN AS MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH

New York, New York --- On June 24, 1971, the New Jersey

Supreme Court ruled in an NAACP Legal Defense and Educational

Fund school desegregation case from Morristown, New Jersey,

that the New Jersey Commissioner of Education has the power to

combine school districts if that is necessary to prevent racial

imbalance and unequal educational opportunity.

Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense

and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), today (6/25) hailed that decision

as a major breakthrough.

In the case, black citizens from Morristown, New Jersey,

assisted by LDF, sought to have the New Jersey Commissioner of

Education prevent the operation of separate school districts by

Morristown and suburban, nearly all-white Morris Township, because

black students would then be concentrated and segregated within

the Morristown district. The Commissioner agreed that the operation

of separate school districts would indeed result in segregation,

accelerate white flight from the town to the township, and undermine

the town's ability to provide adequate educational facilities for

its school children. However, relief was denied because the

Commissioner felt he lacked the power to cross political boundary

lines for the purpose of achieving educational equality. The New

Jersey Supreme Court found otherwise.

Mr. Greenberg pointed out that his organization is also

involved is cases raising similar issues pending in the United

States Supreme Court (fr scotland Neck, N.C. and Emporia, Va.)

and in the United States District Court at Richmond, Va.

(MORE)

NAACP 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

NEW JERSEY SCHOOL PAGE TWO

Other lawsuits, challenging the use of boundary lines

between different school districts to block desegregation of

the schools in both Northern and Southern states, are being

prepared by the civil rights group.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund -- no longer

connected with its founding organization, the National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People -- has brought almost every

major school desegregation suit. These include, but are not

limited to the 1954 Brown case, which began the tedious road

toward effective school desegregation, and the 1971 Charlotte-

Mecklenburg case, which ordered the use of busing and non-contiguous

pairing of schools to achieve desegregation.

The Morristown case was brought by MacKenzie and Harding,

Morristown attorneys, who received the assistance of the LDF

staff. The Morristown Board of Education also supported the suit.

=30=

For further information in New York:

Norman Chachkin or Sandy O'Gorman
(212) 586-8397

NOTE: Statement by Jack Greenberg attached.

June 25, 1971

Statement by Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., (LDF)

Re: Morristown, New Jersey School Desegregation Case
Decided by New Jersey Supreme Court on June 24, 1971

"The Morristown school case, just decided by the New Jersey

Supreme Court, is one of the most significant NAACP Legal Defense

and Educational Fund victories in our effort to break through

political boundary lines which have kept black children pinned

to inner city schools for so long.

"The court has affirmed the authority of New Jersey's

Commissioner of Education to combine school districts, where

necessary, to eliminate racial imbalance and thus provide equal

educational opportunities for all children.

"LDF has similar cases now pending before the United States

Supreme Court, one involving Scotland Neck, N.C.; the other,

Emporia, Va. A Richmond, Va. case is pending in U.S. District

Court and will be heard this summer. Additional cases, both

Northern and Southern, are being prepared.

"The only way that effective desegregation can be achieved

in many situations is to consider central city and suburban

communities as a single educational unit."

=a0—

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.

New Jersey School Desegregation Case Seen as Major Breakthrough

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in