Mississippi Gets its Largest School Integration Lawsuit
Press Release
January 22, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 2. Mississippi Gets its Largest School Integration Lawsuit, 1965. 2853ba9c-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/e4d21d2d-44ee-466f-bbc1-4349f17b836f/mississippi-gets-its-largest-school-integration-lawsuit. Accessed July 09, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10019 JUdson 6-8397 NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund PRESS RELEASE President FOR RELEASE Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Friday Director-Counsel January 22, 1965 Jack Greenberg Associate Counsel Constance Baker Motley MISSISSIPPI GETS ITS LARGEST SCHOOL INTEGRATION LAW SUIT MOSS POINT, MISS.-- The largest number of Mississippi Negroes ever to register a complaint for desegregation of a school system was filed here today (January 22). The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund representing the parents of 61 school age Negro youths urged the United States District Court for the Southern Division of Mississippi to give ‘immediate consideration to their charges against the “segregated, dual-standard" school system of Moss Point. This small Mississippi town, having only 6,000 elementary and high school enrollment, is the fifth Mississippi school system where the Defense Fund has sought action enjoining Boards of Education from discriminating. The four other Mississippi communities are Jackson, Biloxi, Leake County, and Clarksdale. Legal Defense Fund Attorneys Jack Young of Jackson, Missi- ssippi, and Derrick A. Bell, Melvyn H. Zarr, Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg and Associate-Counsel Constance Baker Motley, all of New York City, have asked the District Court to enjoin the Moss Point Municipal Separate School District, the Super- intendent of Education and several elected public officials, including Mayor Arnold Pierce, from: * Operating a compulsory biracial school system in Moss Point, Mississippi; * Continuing to maintain a dual scheme school zone... based on race and color; * Assigning teachers, principals etc. on the basis of the race and color (Negro personnel to Negro schools and white to schools with white students); * Approving budgets, making available funds, approving employment and construction contracts, and approving policies, curricula and programs which are designed to perpetuate compulsory racially segregated schools. (more) Mississippi gets its Largest - 2 - School Integration Law Suit January 22, 1965 In commenting on the civil action, Legal Defense Fund Attorney Derrick Bell said: “Moss Point suffers from the same symptoms most hard-core segregated towns are afflicted with--absolute segregation, overcrowding of Negro students, better trained white teachers, poorly paid Negro teachers, less teachers for Negro students and more money spent to educate white students than Negro students.“ The Legal Defense Fund is seeking a Court-supervised de- segregation plan for the fall of 1965. - 30 - & Jesse DeVore,.Jr., Director of Public Information-Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 as