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

3. The Law of Desegregation
Paraphrasing the Supreme Court's rules governing school desegregation
is much simpler than applying them. Seven years of litigation has not
brought uniformity among lower court decisions as to what does, and
what does not, satisfy constitutional requirements. Part of the difficulty
may arise from the fact that some lower courts have not recognized
that each desegregation plan raises three interrelated questions.
First, does it provide for a prompt and reasonable start in good faith
toward full compliance? Second, if carried out completely will it result
in a racially nondiscriminatory operation of the school system?
Third, does the time schedule for complete execution of the plan meet
the test of all deliberate speed? Only affirmative answers to all three
questions appear to meet the rules laid down by the Supreme Court.
This chapter sets forth the answers to these questions found in lower
court decisions. They will be analyzed in the light of the pronouncements
of the Supreme Court in an attempt to delineate the law of
desegregation.
PROMPT AND REASONABLE START
In the first years after the School Segregation Cases in 1954, lower courts
took a tolerant view of what constituted "a prompt and reasonable start"
toward good-faith compliance. The formation of a citizens' committee
to study the problems of desegregation, or study and planning by a
school board, was held to be such a start. 1
Now it is clear that such gestures are not enough. In the Little
Rock case, decided in the fall of 1958, the Supreme Court emphasized
that State authorities, including local school boards, are "duty bound
to devote every effort toward initiating desegregation and bringing about
the elimination of racial discrimination in the public school system." 2
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