LDF Files Emporia, Va. School Brief

Press Release
November 24, 1971

LDF Files Emporia, Va. School Brief preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 6. LDF Files Emporia, Va. School Brief, 1971. d8cee8b2-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/ff9189cb-c314-468e-be23-e45f2bd400bf/ldf-files-emporia-va-school-brief. Accessed July 09, 2025.

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    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

LDF FILES EMPORIA, VA. SCHOOL BRIEF 

N.Y., N.Y., Nov. 24 --- Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) today sent to the Supreme Court a 

brief asking the Court to halt the proposed withdrawan of Emporia, 

Virginia from the Greenville County school system, because it would 

drastically alter the present racial balance within the county schools, 

and impede effective school desegregation there. 

The case, Wright v. the Council of the City of Emporia, and a 

companion case, Cotton v. Scotland Neck City Board of Education (its 

brief to be filed within 10 days), are of special concern to LDF 

attorneys who fear that without a strong Supreme Court ruling on their 

side, school districts across the South will opt to divide on non- 

racial pretexts to thwart past desegregation efforts. Emporia alleges 

that it wants to provide dea children with schooling “superior” to 

the county's. However, the net effect of pulling city children out 

of the county system would leave the county 70% black and the city 

(whose schools formerly enrolled all the white children in the county) 

50% white. At present the combined system has a black enrollment of 

65.9%. 

Although the district court refused to allow the division 

because of the substantial racial shift it would create and because 

of other adverse effects it would have upon the ability of the county 

to provide a quality education for its children, the Court of Appeals 

overturned this ruling on the thesis that, under state law, Emporia 

was qualified to operate its own district and could do so so long as 

its "primary motive" was not to thwart school desegregation efforts. 

=30- 

Revised background on Emporia and Scotland Neck cases enclosed. 

For further information contact: Attorney Norman Chachkin or 

Sandy O'Gorman (Public Info.) 

212-586-8397 

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10019 | (212) 586-839 

William T. Coleman, Jr. - President Jack Greenberg - Director-Counse’

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