New Jersey School Desegregation Case Seen as Major Breakthrough

Press Release
June 25, 1971

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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 June 13, 2025.

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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—

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New Jersey School Desegregation Case Seen as Major Breakthrough

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