Atlanta Daily World

Va. Regional High Schools Attacked

RICHMOND, Va. NNPA. Virginia's system of regional high schools for colored students was attacked in the Fourth United States Circuit Court of Appeals here last Tuesday a colored pupil from Pulaski County carried their fight for equal educational facilities to the appellate court.

The three judge appellate court took the case under advisement after attorneys argued the case on appeal from a decision by Judge A. D. Barksdale of the Federal District Court at Roanoke, Virginia, who found no discrimination in school facilities for colored pupils in Pulaski County.

Judge Barksdale has agreed, with the appellants, that high school education for colored students in Pulaski County is offered only at the Christiansburg Industrial Institute, in nearby Montgomery County, under a regional agreement set up by the Legislature and regulated by the State Board of Education.

CLAIM EQUALITY

Attorneys for the Pulaski School Board told Judge John J. Parker and his two associates last Tuesday that they believed substantially equal school facilities exist. If any discrimination has existed as they contend, it has not been "intentional" and thus is not unconstitutional.

In this latest chapter in Virginia's manifold school equalization suits, attorneys for the colored pupils stated the issue flatly in briefs filed with the court.

"The issue is not whether country and cities can consolidate their educational facilities for all pupils, or the validity of the statute. The issue is whether a county can exile its Negro high school pupils to an institution over which it has no control or jurisdiction, while affording its white high school pupils high school privileges in institutions over which it has exclusive control and jurisdiction.

And while it is clear that the reason for the discrimination is the separate segregation laws of the State, those laws cannot be employed as a justification for denial of the equal protection of the laws."