1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

eluding families of a particular race, the board of education is free
to establish such areas for the best utilization of its educational
facilities.
In Taylor v. Board of Education of New Rochelle, N.Y., 26 in <strong>1961</strong> the
court found that the school board had denied the plaintiffs equal protection
of the laws by deliberate gerrymander of the Lincoln School
attendance zone to create and maintain an all-Negro school. The
crucial facts appear in the following summary.
In 1930 the school board established highly irregular school zone
boundaries so that the Lincoln zone would include little but Negro areas,
while the adjoining Webster zone was mainly white. In ensuing years,
as the Negro area expanded to the west of Lincoln, its attendance zone
was extended to contain them. Similar action was taken to keep the
nearby Mayflower School white in enrollment. White children remaining
in the Lincoln zone were allowed to transfer to other schools.
The result was that children living in adjoining houses attended different
schools solely because of race. White children living south of Lincoln
were assigned to Mayflower, half a mile north of Lincoln. Then early
in 1949 the board, adopting a resolution to study zone lines, banned all
transfers as of the following September i. From January 1949 to the
date of the Taylor suit no redistricting was adopted, although the
Board discussed the problem, hired experts, made surveys, and reiterated
its belief in racial equality. Various recommendations made to the Board
during this period are outlined in the court's opinion. Both the Johnson
and Dodson reports emphasized the racial concentrations in the schools
due to their attendance zones. The Dodson report warned that "to do
nothing about it is to encourage racial imbalance. To do nothing about
it is a decision just as powerful and as important as a decision to try to do
something about the imbalance." 2