Slow School Desegregation Hit by Two Rights Groups

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JUdson 6-8397 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 

oye thlian KaieliChatiners 
Director-Counsel 

“Jack Greenberg 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
November 16, 1965 

SLOW SCHOOL DESEGREGATION 
HIT BY TWO "RIGHTS GROUPS 

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Sweeping changes will have to be made in 

the implementation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act if schools 

are to be desegregated by the target date of September, 1967; two 

organizations told the U.S. Department of Health, Education-and 

Welfare yesterday. 

In a 59-page report made public today, the American Friends 

Service Committee and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational “Fund 

made twenty recommendations to HEW to speed the pace of school 

integration, based on the experience of a School Desegregation 

Task Force which they co-sponsored last summer. 

Active in seven states and approximately 100 communities, the 

Task Force contributed to the registration of about 4,000 Negro 

children in previously all-white schools, according to Jean Fairfax, 

director of the project and spokesman at today's news conference. 

The report questioned the "freedom of choice" desegregation 

plans under which pupils are theoretically allowed to choose which 

schools they wish to attend. Harassment, intimidation, and more 

subtle forms of pressure often discourage Negroes from attempting 

to enroll in desegregated schools under this plan, the Task Force 

found. 

If fewer than 20% of the Negro pupils are currently enrolled 

in desegregated schools after freedom of choice has been in effect, 

this should be regarded as an indication that the plan is not 

working, the report states. 

The report also recommended that HEW: 

--Undertake an extensive educational program to inform 

Negroes of their rights to desegregated education. 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss 



--Take affirmative action in concert with the Justice Department to halt 

harassment and intimidation of Negroes who seek to exercise their 

right +o attend desegregated Hoaate 

--Require school districts to include integration of faculty 

and staff injtheir desegr2gation plans. \ 

--Require integration of transportation, cafeterias and other 

school facilities and extra-curricular activities as well as 

classrooms. 

--Require complete desegregation of at least one sehool unit, 

such as elementary, junior or senior high schools, for th2 coming 

year. 

--Refuse to accept court orders, which often require less 

integration than suggested by HSW guidelines, as indications of 

school desegregation. 

The urgency of eliminating the practice of assigning only 

Negro teachers to schools attended predominantly by Negroes, and 

white teachers to schools attended by whites is especially evident 

where freedom of choice plans are in effect, according to Jack 

Greenberg, Legal Defense Fund director-counsel. 

The racial composition of the faculty and staff designates 

which schools pupils of a particular race are encourag:i to attend 

as effectively as a sign over the door, Mr. Greenberg said. 

Conny Curry, a staff member of the Community Relations Division 

of the AFSC, who participated in the Task Force last summer in 

Georgia, cited incidents of intimidation such as homes being fired 

into, evictions, and job loss. In one county where 34 students 

had applied for transfer to desegregated schools, all the appli- 

cations were withdrawn as the result of pressure. 

For further information call: 

IN PHILADELPHIA-American Friends Service Committee, Margaret H. 

Bacon, 215-L0 3-9372 

IN NEW YORK CITY-NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Jesse 

DeVore, 212-JU 6-8397.