Conclusions

The Nation's progress in removing the stultifying effects of segregationin the public elementary and secondary schools2014North, South, East,and West2014is slow indeed.

During the period 1959-61, only 44 school districts in the 17 Southernand border States initiated desegregation programs; 13 of these actedunder court orders; 15 more were pressured into action by pending suits.Seven years after the Supreme Court decision in the School SegregationCases, 2,062 school districts in the South that enroll both white andNegro pupils had not even started to comply with the requirements ofthe Constitution. These include all districts in Alabama, Georgia,Mississippi, and South Carolina; all but one in Florida and one inLouisiana. Some of the 775 that have started to desegregate havebarely begun a 12-year progression; others, by making all initial assignments by race and placing the burden of seeking transfer on Negropupils2014often under extensive pupil placement procedures2014have keptat a minimum the number of Negroes in attendance at formerly whiteschools.

In the North and the West, where segregation by race, color, religion,or national origin is not officially countenanced, it exists in fact in manypublic schools. A Federal court decision in the New Rochelle, N.Y., case in January 1961 (affirmed by the court of appeals) which requiredthe desegregation of a public school in a northern city, was probablythe most significant single event affecting equal protection of the lawsin public education since the Supreme Court's decision in the LittleRock casein 1958.

Legislative resistance to desegregation has continued in some Southern States, notably Louisiana. Others, such as Virginia and Georgia,have shifted from massive resistance to freedom of choice fortified bytuition grants. The former proved unconstitutional; the new strategyis now before the courts. The Prince Edward (Va.) case raised thequestion whether the closing of the public schools and financing the education of all children who seek it in private schools is an evasion of acourt order to desegregate. In the St. Helena case the closing of a public school in accordance with Louisiana State law to avoid the neces-173

sity of desegregating has been successfully challenged as a denial ofequal protection under the I4th amendment.

The Attorney General of the United States has been active in the New Orleans case to prevent nullification of constitutional principles byState action; to prevent evasion of the Federal court order to desegregatepublic schools; and to provide protection to Negro children assigned toformerly white schools. He has also filed a brief as amicus curiae in St. Helena. By invitation of the Federal court in the New Rochelle case,he filed a brief advising the court with regard to the order to be entered.Only in Prince Edward has the Federal court denied the AttorneyGeneral the right to intervene to protect the interests of the United States.

During the period 1959-61 there have been numerous desegregationsuits in the Federal courts. The law of desegregation is gradually emerging as lower courts have had to apply the principles of the SchoolSegregation Cases, and other pertinent Supreme Court pronouncements,to specific problems. Recent decisions indicate that initial assignment ofall pupils by race subject to the right to apply for transfer does not meetconstitutional requirements, and that equal protection of the laws demands that the same criteria for assignment must be applied to bothwhites and Negroes. This should lead to a reevaluation not only ofadministrative procedures under pupil placement plans but of the entireconcept of pupil placement as a method of desegregation.

In New Rochelle the court placed on the school board the obligationof undoing segregation created prior to 1949 by gerrymandering ofschool zones. As this principle has been affirmed on appeal, schoolboards having uniracial schools can no longer justify it merely on thebasis of residential patterns in combination with a neighborhood schoolpolicy. Any existing segregation may be constitutionally suspect.School boards that want to operate their schools in a constitutionalmanner may have to inquire into the cause of any existing segregation.They may have to prove that zoning lines follow residential patternsby coincidence, not design; that the sites and sizes of schools were notfixed to assure segregation; that racial residential patterns were notofficially created in the first instance. Thus New Rochelle challengesmany school boards in the North and the West which have thoughtthey were immune from attack because existing segregation did notresult from school assignment explicitly by race.

Many dependents of military personnel are still attending segregatedoff-base schools in the Southern States, particularly in Alabama, Georgia,Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. In the past 2 years a fewoff-base schools have been desegregated in Arkansas, Florida, and NorthCarolina by voluntary agreement; and in Tennessee by court order. InTexas an on-base school operated by local school authorities was desegregated only after suit was filed. In many places integrated on-base

schools provide elementary school instruction only; high school studentsmust face the problem of segregated schools in local communities.

The growing recognition in the North and the West that "we haveto do a lot more for some children just to give them the same chance tolearn" forecasts an affirmative approach to equal protection. Schoolsystems that have initiated projects to help minority-group children surmount economic, social, and cultural barriers inherited from generationsof deprivation have found marked improvement in their scholasticachievement. Private groups also are offering programs to meet thesame need. If the function of public schools is to provide opportunityfor all American children to develop the skills, attitudes, and knowledgethat will enable them to contribute fully to American life, the extensionof such programs throughout the Nation should be expected.

Many public libraries in Southern States that receive Federal aidunder the Library Services Act of 1956 fail to provide free library serviceto all residents of the community, or do so only on a separate but unequalbasis. In some places only white residents are served.

The admission of two Negro students to the University of Georgia inJanuary 1961 is the outstanding event in the field of higher educationsince the publication of the Commission's Higher Education Report. Several other colleges and universities, both public and private, haveannounced a policy, effective September 1961, of admitting studentswithout regard to race or color. The first school desegregation suitof any kind in the State of Mississippi has been filed to secure admissionto the State university. It has not been decided.

With the opening of...