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What was Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County

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What was Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County

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Prince Edward County is a county in Virginia that decided to take an extreme step toward segregation policies. After the Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, schools were no longer to be separated. But Prince Edward county tried to find a way around this, by defunding and closing all public schools in their county following the Virginia plan of massive resistance. They then provided tuition grants for all students to use for private education. The catch was there were no private schools that allowed black students.

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Following the policy of massive resistance the many counties within Virginia began increasing the difficulty of desegregation. The goal was to make it as hard as possible to desegregate the school system after the Brown V. Board of Education ruling in the Supreme Court. Many schools were shut down between 1958 and 1959 to block their integration.

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Equality Under the Law: The Lost Generation of Prince Edward County (1965)

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When the public schools closed down it left black students without access to public education. From the year 1959 to 1963 there were no public schools in Prince Edward county for black students, depriving them of a public education. Members of the county, and Robert L. Carter from the NAACP, argued that this was a violation of the student's 14th Amendment rights.

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The Supreme Court came to a ruling in 1964. The ruling stated that the public schools were to be reopened by Prince Edward county. That refusing to fund public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. While the county offered vouchers for private education there were no private schools that accepted black students. There were two dissents to the ruling due to the unusual level of intervention in the function of local government. This was also the first time that the Supreme Court ordered a county government to exercise their power of taxation.

Attached below is a draft of the first page of the decision.

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-Equal Protection Clause: "nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". Mandates individuals in similar situations be treated equally by the law.

-Massive Resistance: A campaign of new state laws and policies in Virginia to prevent the desegregation of schools.

-Robert Lee Carter: American lawyer, civil rights activist, and a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_v._County_School_Board_of_Prince_Edward_County#cite_note-Griffin223-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Protection_Clause

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_resistance