Primary Documents
All documents and descriptions taken from the Race Relations Law Reporter, an invaluable source that covered the legal developments of the period.

Document One [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 56 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, makes provisions for the granting of equivalent funds to counties, towns, or school districts which become ineligible for the normal state school funds through the operation of Chapter 71 (i.e., where racial integration exists in the schools). The act provides that such funds may be made available for the furnishing of grants to pupils attending private, nonsectarian schools.

Document Two [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 57 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, makes provisions for tax levies by counties or cities where no tax levy is provided otherwise for public schools. The act provides authority for the expenditure of funds derived from such taxation for making expense grants to pupils attending nonsectarian private schools and for other expenses in connection with such pupils.

Document Three [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 58 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, makes provisions for the budgeting and expenditure of grants to pupils for education in private nonsectarian schools.

Document Four [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 59 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, provides that no child shall be required to enroll in or attend a racially integrated school.

Document Five [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 60 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, amends the Code of Virginia so as to authorize but not require county school boards to provide transportation of pupils.

Document Six [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 61 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, amends the Virginia school laws with respect to the assignment of teachers by division superintendents.

Document Seven [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 62 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, authorizes local school boards ot transfer and spend school funds by making grants to pupils for education in private, nonsectarian schools.

Document Eight [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 63 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, authorizes the employment of counsel to defend school boards or members thereof in certain legal proceedings.

Document Nine [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 64 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, amends the Code of Virginia with respect to the teacher retirement system so as to authorize teachers participating in certain private educational corporations to be included under the retirement system.

Document Ten [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 65 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, authorizes the state Attorney General to render legal advice and assistance to county, city, or town school boards with reference to the “commingling of the races” in public schools.

Document Eleven [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 66 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, makes amendments to the Virginia school laws with respect to minimum school terms.

Document Twelve [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 67 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, makes amendments to the Code of Virginia with respect to city and county budgets. The amendments relate to the availability of state funds for the purposes of making grants to pupils attending private, nonsectarian schools.

Document Thirteen [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 68 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, announces the public policy of the State of Virginia as requiring segregation in the public schools and provides for the assumption of control by the “Commonwealth of Virginia” of any school which is “voluntarily or under compulsion of any court order” racially integrated. The act further provides for the closing of any such school until an investigation by the governor shall determine that that school can be reopened and the pupils thereof reassigned in accordance with the state's policy. If the school cannot be reopened under such conditions, the act provides for the furnishing of other facilites for instruction or for making of uition grants to pupils. All acts done in connection with the establishent of schools and the assignment of pupils are stated to be acts of the state with respect to which the state declines to be amenable to suit except through suit brought by the state Attorney General.

Document Fourteen [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 69 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, provides for the declaration of a state of emergency in any school district in which an “efficient system of elementary or secondary public schools” is not operated under local authority (an efficient system being defined as one in which no racial integration exists). The act provides for the establishment by the General Assembly of an “efficient system of elementary and secondary public schools” in any such district when invoked by resolution of the local governing body. The administration of such state schools is vested in “Governor for the General Assembly” but provision is made for non-conflicting administrative functions to be performed by local school boards and for the general supervision of the State Board of Education.

Document Fifteen [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 70 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, enacts a “pupil placement act” to be administered by a Pupil Placement Board provided by the at. Provision is made for the proccedure of the Board and review of its decisions. The act provides criteria to guide the Board in the placement of pupils and provides that no pupil may transfer to a new school in his area without approval of the Board.

Document Sixteen [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 71 of the acts of the 1956 Extra Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved September 29, 1956, makes amendments to the biennium appropriation act. Among the amendents are those to Item 133, providing funds for supervision of instruction; to Item 134, providing funds for teacher salaries; to Item 137, providing funds for teacher salary equalization; to Item 138, providing minimum state funds for public schools; and to Item 143, providing funds for pupil transportation. Each of the amendments limits the application of the funds provided to “efficient elemntary and secondary schools.” An “efficient elementary or secondary school” is defined as one in which there is no raical integration of pupils. Following Item 143, the following statement of policy and definitions are included in the act.

Document Seventeen [full document in pdf format]
Defense of the Pupil Placement Act in the Virginia Supreme Court:
DeFebio v. the County School Board of Fairfax County (1957)
Summary: The white mother of school-age children in Fairfax County, Virginia, brought a petition for a writ of mandamus in the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to require county school offiials to readmit her children to public schools in the county without requiring the filing of an “application for placement of pupil.” Upon establishing residence in the county, the children had been provisionally admitted to schools but were excluded when the mother refused to file the form required by the state Pupil Placement Act. The petition contended the Pupil Placement Act to be unconstitutional under both the state and federal constitutions. The court refused to grant the petition, holding that the act was within the constitutional powers of the state legislature and that the plaintiffs did not allege that the act deprived them of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment and thus had no standing to challenge the act on that ground.

Document Eighteen [full document in pdf format]
Certificate of Incorporation: Tidewater Educational Foundation
Summary: The State Corporation Commission of Virginia issued a certificate of incorporation on June 27, 1958, to the Tidewater Educational Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is described in the charter as being to provide educational opportunities in one or more private educational establishments in Norfolk, Virginia. Virginia has enacted statutory procedures for the support of students in private non-sectarian schools in the event of integration of public schools.

Document Nineteen [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 642 of the 1958 Session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved April 7, 1958, continues the limitations contained in Chapter 71 of the 1956 Extra Sessions Act, limiting the application of funds to “efficient” elementary and secondary schools. “Efficient” schools are defined as those in which there is no racial integration.

Document Twenty [full document in pdf format]
Statement of the Attorney General of Virginia, who was asked whether public funds might validly be expended for the construction of school facilities designed for racially segregated use. The Attorney General answered that, on authority of County School Board of Hanover County v. Shelton [93 S.E.2d 469 (Va. 1956)], the expenditure would be valid.

Document Twenty-One [full document in pdf format]
Report of the "Gray Commission," November 11, 1955.
On August 30, 1954, the Governor of Virginia appointed a Commission on Public Education (known as the “Gray Commission”) to examine the effect of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the School Segregation Cases and to make recommendations.

Document Twenty-Two [full document in pdf format]
The City Council of Norfolk, Virginia, on October 21, 1958, adopted a resolution calling for a referendum on whether city voters wished the governor petitioned to return closed schools to the control of the city, for reopening on an integrated basis. [The referendum was held on November 18, 1958, and press reports indicated a vote in a 3-2 ratio against reopening the schools on the basis stated].

Document Twenty-Three [full document in pdf format]
Memorandum issued by the Pupil Placement Board concerning the application and enforcement of the Pupil Placement Act (August 19, 1957).

Document Twenty-Four [full document in pdf format]
Form adoped by the Virginia Pupil Placement Board for use in assigning pupils to schools.

Document Twenty-Five [full document in pdf format]
Calloway v. Farley, et, al, individually and constituting the Pupil Placement Board of the State of Virginia. United States District Court, Eastern District, Virgiia, September 18, 1957.
Summary: African American patrons of the schools of Richmond, Virginia, brought an action in federal district court against members of the state Pupil Placemen Board and city school authorities. The action sought to enjoin the enforcement of the Virginia Pupil Placement Act which requires that assignment of pupils to individual schools be made by the state board. The court issued a temporary order restraining the defendants from denying the plaintiffs the right to attend city schools solely on the basis that they had failed to apply to the board for enrollment or had not filed a “placement form.”

Document Twenty-Six [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 631 of the acts of the 1958 Virginia General Assembly, approved by the governor March 29, 1958, amends a 1956 act which established a policy of school segregation for the State of Virginia and provided for the assumption of state control where integration is imminent. The amended section requires resolution, by both the school board and the county board of supervisors, instead of the alternative action provided by the 1956 act, in certifying that the statute cannot be complied with, and confers discretionary powers on the governor in his response to such certification.

Document Twenty-Seven [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 41 of the acts of the 1958 session of the Virginia General Assembly, approved by the governor February 17, 1958, establishes that the state's policy as being opposed to the use of Federal military units in schools, and provides for the closing of schools where such troops are stationed.

Document Twenty-Eight [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 319 of the acts of the 1958 Virginia General Assembly, approved by the governor March 13, 1958, extends the provisions of Chapter 41, to other schools in the same district.

Document Twenty-Nine [full document in pdf format]
Chapter 500 of the acts of the 1958 Virginia General Assembly, approved by the governor March 29, 1958, amends that state's 1956 Pupil Placement Act. Changes include the elimination of a fixed term of office for members of the Pupil Placement Board, the substitution of criteria for assignment of pupils, and a grant of subpoena powers.