Evening star., 1955-07-19
By MARY LOU WERNER
Star stan CORRESPONDENT

Star stan Correspondent
RICHMOND. July I9.-The
State of Virginia today conf
IDENTIFY went ahead with plans to
Icontifue school segregation in
the 1955-56 term after q three
judge Federal court held i. was
not practical to expect deseere-
cation by September,
Authority for the State to put
Ioff desegregation awhile longer
was contained n 8 formal decree
entered here yesterday in the
Prince Edward County case, one
of the five ruled on by the SUI
lpreme Court last year.
Judges Armistead Dobie. Ster-
ling Hutcheson and Albert v.
Bryan directed Prince Edward
to proceed with deliberate
speed" in making necessary ar
Irangements for complying with
the Supreme Court decision, but
held that it would not be ''prac-
ticable" to order desegregation
by the beginning of the fall
term in September.
Virginia Attorney General j.
Lindsay Almonds jr., and attor-
lneys for Prince Edward County
had urged the court to specif1-
Ically permit operation of segre-
gated schools during 1856,
Attorneys for the National Asso-
citation for the Advancement OF
Colored People asked the court
to order desegregation by the be-
ginning of the fall term.
Almond every Pleased"
Neither side got exactly what
lit wanted, but Mr.. Almond re-
ceived word of the court decision
enthusiastically.
II am very pleased with the
Decree" he said. II feel it is a
considerable improvement over
1.-THE South Carolina decree, and
believe it permits Virginia to op-
crate its schools this year as 1t
has before"
Gov. Stanley and the State
Board of Education announced
two weeks ago that Virginia
planned to operate a segregated
school system in 1955-56 while
awaiting a report of the Gray
commission about what future
course the State should follow
The commission is expected
Ito recommend legislative action
necessary in Virginia as a re-
suit of the Supreme Court de-
lciSion.
The Virginia order is similar
to the one entered last week in
South Carolina in a similar case
/ in that it specifies no time when
schools must be desegregated
But the Virginia decree goes a
step further by stating that IL
is impractical to expect desegre.
cation by the beginning of the
fall term.
Seen Precedent for State
Only FRINGE Edward County
was involved in the case before
the court yesterday, but the de-
cree was looked upon as a pre-
cedent to guide Statewide
action .
The decree orders Prince Ed
ward not to enfore school seq
regation provisions of the
Virginia constitution and code,
and restrains the county from
refusing admission of any quail
fed child to public schools On
account of race from and after
such time as the defendants
prince Edward School Board)
may have made the necessary
arrangements for admission Of
children to such schools on a
non discriminatory basis with
|all deliberate speed as required
by the decision of the Supreme
Court"
This directive is qualified as
follows:
But the court finds that it
would not be practicable because
of the adjustment and the ar
rangement required for the pur-
pose. to place the public school
system of Prince Edward County,
Va, upon a nondiscriminatory
basis before the commencement
of the regular school term in
September, 1855, as requested by
the plaintiffs. and the court is
of the opinion that the refusal
of the court to require such ad-