LDF Defends Lower Court Victory Over "Insider" New York City Principals' Examination

Press Release
February 14, 1972

Cite this item

LDF Defends Lower Court Victory Over "Insider" New York City Principals' Examination 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

This item is featured in:

Color photo of Elizabeth Bartholet, smiling and seated indoors during her oral history interview.

Elizabeth Bartholet Oral History

Collection
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- e80350c5-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Volume 6. LDF Defends Lower Court Victory Over "Insider" New York City Principals' Examination, 1972. e80350c5-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/f2ec475f-596b-4c8a-90aa-fc678327ea36/ldf-defends-lower-court-victory-over-insider-new-york-city-principals-examination. Accessed October 28, 2025.

Copied!

“PressRelease B im
20

efense und

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 14, 1972

LDF DEFENDS LOWER COURT

VICTORY OVER "INSIDER" NEW YORK

CITY PRINCIPALS' EXAMINATION

NEW YORK, N.Y. --- On February 15, 1972, the Legal

Defense Fund (LDF) will defend a lower court decision which stopped

the giving of discriminatory civil service examinations for New York

City School principals. LDF Attorney Elizabeth DuBois will argue,

that the decision must be upheld to permit the institution of an

examination system which would permit selection based on merit and

fitness for these key roles in urban education.

LDF filed a reply brief on February 9, 1972, to answer

charges made by the Board of Examiners, which administers the exams,

that the injunction would create a spoils system. The brief argued

that the present system rewards and favors those within the system

at the expense of those who have traditionally been locked out.

The brief, written on behalf of Boston Chance, a black, and

Louis Mercado, a Puerto Rican, notes that Black and Puerto Rican

children would have the most to lose from a system based on anything

other than merit and fitness.

On July 14, 1971, District Judge Walter Mansfield found

that the Examiners' tests "aimed at testing the candidate's ability

to memorize rather than the qualities normally associated with a

school administrator." As a result of these tests, New York had

the lowest percentage of minority principals (1.4%) among the five

(more)

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

illiam T. Coleman, Jr. - President fe’ Rivoates gh

N.Y. CITY PRINCIPALS' EXAMINATION PAGE 2

largest cities in the United States. The next lowest, Chicago,

had five times as many minority principals. The New York City

Board of Education has refused to defend the examination system,

and did not appeal the lower court decision. Chancellor Harvey

Scribner called the system "unworkable."

The case will be heard before the Second Circuit Court of

Appeals.

For further information contact: Attorney Elizabeth B. DuBois

or Abeke Foster, Public Information

(212) 586-8397

NOTE: Please bear in mind that the LDF is a completely separate

and distinct organization even though we were established by the

NAACP and those initials are retained in our name. Our correct

designation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.,

frequently shortened to LDF.

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.

LDF Defends Lower Court Victory Over "Insider" New York City Principals' Examination

This item is featured in:

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in