EWP Grey Commission 013

Title

Place

Virginia

Identifier

1000584

Is Version Of

1000584_EWP_Grey_Commission_013.jpg

Is Part Of

Uncategorized

Date Created

2024-01-07

Format

Jpeg Image

Number

8471f8f11f36d3d5ba4ecaa476dd43e963d796ab15da538296e5371ae7fdf177

Source

/Volumes/T7 Shield/EWP/Elements/EWP_Files/Access Files/Upload temp/1000584_EWP_Grey_Commission_013.jpg

Publisher

Digitized by Edwin Washingon Project

Rights

Loudoun County Public Schools

Language

English

Replaces

/Volumes/T7 Shield/EWP/Elements/EWP_Files/source/Ingest One/1 Civil Rights/integration_folder/Grey_Commission/EWP_Grey_Commission_013.jpg

extracted text

APPENDIX I

HONORABLE THOMAS B. STANLEY, Governor of Virginia

On August 30, 1954, Your Excellency appointed the undersigned to a
commission charged with the duty of examining the effect on this Com-
monwealth of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in
the school segregation cases handed down on May 17, 1954, and of making
such recommendations, based upon its examination, as they deemed proper.

Your Commission met on September 13, 1954, and elected the under-
signed chairman and Harry B. Davis vice-chairman. An executive com-
mittee was provided for, consisting of the two named officers and nine
other members of the Commission.

Immediately following the appointment of the Commission, its mem-
bers began to receive a large volume of mail from the citizens of Virginia.
In addition, a great many citizens talked with members of the Commission
and stated their views on the question of integration, requesting that they
be transmitted to the proper authorities.

The Commission held a public hearing on November 15, 1954, in
the City of Richmond. The widest possible publicity was given to this
hearing and all citizens and groups were invited to attend or send repre-
sentatives to express their views on the question of what course Virginia
should follow in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United
States in the school segregation cases. The hearing was held in the Mosque
in order to accommodate the more than two thousand persons who at-
tended. It began at 10:00 A. M. and extended late into the night. Op-
portunity was given everyone who had indicated a desire to do so, to
express his opinion.

As the record of the public hearing shows, the great majority of those
appearing there expressed opposition to integration and requested those
in authority to afford them relief from the effects which they anticipated
would result therefrom. Spokesmen for the Negro race and various Negro
organizations, and a lesser number of white persons, urged immediate in-
tegration ; in some instances conflicting viewpoints developed among mem-
bers of the same organization.

The hearing was well attended, orderly, and apparently representative
of the views of the people of the entire State, and it is presently the view
of the Commission that further public hearings would result only in cumula-
tive testimony, rather than fresh viewpoints.

The testimony at the hearing brought into sharp focus the nature
and intensity of the feeling as to the effect that integration would have
on the public school system. Not only did the majority of persons speaking
at the hearing feel that integration would lead to the abolition or destruc-
tion of the public school system, but some groups indicated, through their
spokesmen, that they preferred to see the public school system abandoned
if the only alternative was integration.

It is noteworthy that fifty-five counties, located in various parts
of the State, through resolutions adopted by their representative governing
bodies, have expressed opposition to integration in the public schools
and that of the fifty-five counties only twenty-one have over fifty percent
Negro population. A number of school boards have expressed opposition
to integration of the races in the schools, as have many non-governmental

14

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