The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1961-09-01
Prince Edwards
Position Clear

Richmond News-Leader entitled |
"Out of the Jaws" referred to |
some of the trials of the people |
Of Prince Edward during the ten
years duration of the litigation
over desegregation of the county's
schools. l, wish to express my
opinions on some of the points.
It may be true that Prince
Edward is Battle Weary" How
ever. there has never been any
loss Of vision on the part of our
people nor any distortion Of the
goal we seek. That goal is and
has always been, the attainment
OF system Of schools where all
Prince Edward children could be
educated in accordance with the
will of the majority Of the people
Of our county. Our position has
always been simple. We have
stated, from the first filing Of
the suit sponsored by the NAACP
against the County. that we
will not tax ourselves to support
a school system which is com
pletely unacceptable to vast
majority of our people" This
statement was expressed to our
Board of Supervisors in writing
signed by over 1920 adult citi-
zens of the County and recorded
in the Office Of the Clerk of the
Circuit Court Of this County. That
is the mandate which controls
the actions Of our County Board
of Supervisors.
Though there have been some
setbacks we have never deviated
from this course nor do we in
tend to deviate. 1t has never
been the intention Of the people
of Prince Edward to take any
step which would be more punt
tive to one race than to the
other. When public schools be-
came imperative and Foun-
dation was set up for the edu-
cation of white students, an iden-
teal corporation, of which l am
President. was set up to educate
Negro students. Although the
NAACP advised Negro parents
not to attend these schools and
succeeded in influencing them not
to apply for admission to the
schools, the offer to establish
such schools for both races of
the County was made in good
faith. Several attempts to help
Negro parents to educate their
children during the two years
which have elapsed since public
schools were closed have met
with the same fate. This year,
however, enough Negro parents
had applied in writing for admis-
sion OF their children to a private
school to make such a school
possible. The ruling of Judge
Lewis prohibiting the use Of to-
ition grants, either by County or
State, to any child, white or Ne
gro, residing in Prince Edward
County, has doomed this effort to
failure.
There is one aspect of the edi-
torial which this writer does not
understand. Judge Lewis was cor
rectly quoted: Tuition grants
cannot be paid TO any Prince Ed
ward child SO long as the public
schools are closed" However. I |
cannot agree with the statement,
The converse of his ruling is
equally plain, the grants can be
PAID II the pubic schools are re-
opened" Nowhere in his ruling
does the Judge make an affirma-
tive statement that tuition grants |
will be available if public schools
are reopened. He only states
negatively that grants cannot be
made to Prince Edward students
so long as they remain closed.
The people Of Prince Edward
have fought too hard and too long
to be rushed into any change /
which may trap them. In the
meantime, we shall continue to |
operate the schools of the Prince |
Edward School Foundation as
they have been for the past two
years. I soAak With oeniiine ein. |