Evening star., 1955-04-09
Virginia Says
Schools Can't
Be Infegrafed
Brief to High Court
Cites Differences in
Education, Health
By the Associated Press

The Supreme Court was told
today integration in Virginia
schools "is impossible at this
time" because Negroes have a
lower level Of educational attain
ment and higher rate of infec-
tious diseases than whites.
Virginia's Attorney General j.
Lindsay Almond, jr., and counsel
for the Prince Edward County
School Board advanced the argu-
ment in supplemental brief
mailed to the high court.
Oral arguments before the
court begin Monday on the ma
ture of the final DEGREES the
court must enter to carry out
its May II, 1854. ruling that
public school segregation is un-
constitutional.
The brief from the Virginia
officials declared this court
must permit a now indetermin-
able period to elapse before re-
quiring integration of the races
in Virginia public schools"
Cite Practical Reasons
The attorneys said their posi-.
ton is not taken because of "ra-
cial dislike" and cited number
Of what they called practical
reasons" to support their belief
decree of immediate integrar
ton would result in collapse OF
the States public schools.
Attorneys for the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, representing
Prince Edward Negro parents
and pupils. had insisted in an
earlier brief that integration Of
the schools should be ordered by
the Supreme Court no later
than the beginning of the fall
term next September.
The Prince Edward suit was
one of five originally ruled on by
the Supreme Court.
Reasons Listed
These were the reasons ad-'
vanced in the brief by Mr.. Al
mond, School Board Counsel i.
Archibald G. Robertson, John w.
Riley and T. Justin Moore, jr.::
/. Intelligence quotient tests
prepared by the American Coun-
Gil on Education and given an
nually to all high school seniors
in Virginia show that, in the
cities, the lowest 25 per cent OF
white pupils make a higher score
than the highest Is per cent Of
Negroes.
2. Latest tabulation from city
schools of the result of reading
tests given to $1,000 eighth-grade
pupils across the State shows
that the lowest Is per cent of
white students has a higher level
of attainment than the highest
25 per cent of Negroes.
3.-"Statistics for Virginia /.
indicate that tuberculosis is al
most twice as prevalent among
Negroes as among whites. Sim
ilarly, in Virginia, where Negroes
constitute % per cent Of the pop
ulation, 78 per cent of the cases
of syphilis and SO per cent of the
cases of gonorrhea occur among
Negroes.
mo white parent will welcome
Negro students into the white
schools when to do so would in
crease his child's exposure to
such contagious diseases"
An Virginia, one white
child out of every SO is illegiti-
mate: one Negro child out of
every five is illegitimate. The
background of parental morality
indicated by these figures dis
mays Virginia's white parents"
Many Negro Teachers
The brief noted that Virginia
now employs as many Negro
teachers as do all the unsegre-
gated States.
But" the brief continued,
Virginia is not prepared to place
Negro teachers in charge Of
white pupils.
-. These facts present very
practically justification for the
position taken by Virginia that
integration under present condi-
tions is impossible at rhis time"
The brief called on the court
to remember two points in it's
May II ruling:
1.-The turning phrase" the
brief said, lis the asserted feel
ing of inferiority that may affect
tNegro) hearts and minds in a
way unlikely to be undone.' The
Attorney General Of the United
States welcomed a decision on
this ground and he now proposes
that it be put into effect on a
relatively moderate basis.
But he overlooks, as the court
should not, the fact that other
psychology is involved here in
addition to that of the Negro.
That is the psychology of the
whites; it must be taken fully
into account in the final Decree"