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U.S.News & World Report
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ONE STATE'S IDEA—
~ South’s Model for Separate Schools?.
A school program worked out
by Virginia now is coming to be
widely regarded as the South’s
answer to the Supreme Court.
Its aim: To preserve segrega-
tion, and yet to avoid conflict
with the Court.
How Virginia expects to do
this is told here.
If this plan works, other States
in the South are expected to fol-
low suit.
What is this Virginia plan that is at-
tracting so much attention?
It is a plan to revise Virginia’s public-
school system in such a way as to
avoid—or at least to minimize—the mix-
ing of white and Negro children in
classrooms.
The basic outlines of this plan are
shown in the chart on this page.
It proposes two main courses of action:
1. To maintain racial separation, as
far as possible, by a new system of as-
signing students to specific schools.
... To provide grants from public
funds to help pay tuition in private
schools for children where no segregated
public school is available.
Announced aim of the plan is to make
sure “that no child be required to attend
an integrated school.”
The plan was drafted and unani-
mously recommended by a commission
of 32 legislators appointed by Governor
Thomas B. Stanley. Chairman of the
commission was State Senator Garland
Gray, so the plan has come to be known
in Virginia as the Gray Commission
Report,
Would this plan conflict with the de-
cision of the U. S. Supreme Court which
heid that segregation in public schools
is unconstitutional?
Sponsors of the plan say that it would
not, because there would be no official
segregation by race in public schools.
Whether tederal courts will uphold this
view is yet to be tested.
If public-school pupils are not to be
separated by race, under the plan, then
how does Virginia expect to keep the
races apart in public schools?
By a new system of assignment. School
boards would be authorized to assign
(Continued on page 50)
U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, Dec. 16, 1955
o
Virginia's Plan
To Avoid Mixed Schools
FIRST STEP—
Set up a new system
of assigning children to schools
% Officially, color line is to be abandoned and assignments
made on such grounds as health, aptitude and avail-
ability of school facilities.
% Actually, assignment plan is designed to keep races, gen-
erally, in separate schools. ’
AlM:
To avoid racial mixing, or at least
hold it to a minimum.
SECOND STEP-
If assignment plan fails,
a community would have 2 choices:
1. Mix public schools, but help “objectors” pay for
segregated private schooling.
or
2. Abolish public schools and help finance segregated
private schooling for all. T
Y Grants from school funds would be made to help pay
tuition in private schools.
% To finance tuition grants, local taxes and State aid would
continue,
AlM: ‘ | -
To insure that no child is compelled
to attend a mixed school.