The Detroit Tribune

NAACP Seeks To Curb Pupil Placement Law

Attacking the validity of the Virginia State Pupil Placement law, the NAACP has asked the United States District Court in Richmond, Va., to enjoin the Richmond School Board and the State Pupil Placement Board "from any and all action that regulates or affects, on the basis of race or color, the initial assignment, placement, transfer, admission, the enrollment or the education of any child in any public school."

The complaint, filed on Sept. 5, on behalf of 27 Negro school children whose applications for transfers to "white" schools, alleges that local and state school authorities "deliberately and purposefully, and solely because of race continue to require all or virtually all Negro public school children to attend where none but Negroes are enrolled and to require all white public school children to attend school where few if any, Negroes are enrolled."

Moreover the NAACP complaint charges, the criteria demanded of Negro children for admission to "white" schools is different and more difficult than those demanded of white children. For instance, it points out, Negro applicants for transfers have to have academic records which "compare favorably with the best record of the children already in attendance at the school," even though many white children attending the school have lower academic records or scores than the Negro applicants.

The complaint further asks the court to enjoin the school board and the Pupil Placement Board from denying the 27 plaintiffs the right to attend the schools to which they sought transfers and from using discriminatory criteria in the assignment of pupils to schools. Also the court is asked to require the defendants to submit a desegregation plan on a non-racial basis and to submit periodic progress reports.

Representing the Negro school children were NAACP attorneys S.W. Tucker, Henry L. Marsh, III, and Roland B. Haley, all of Richmond.