has meant the dismissal and demotion of black faculty members. And extracurricular activities and programs, the third requirement, is one we have not monitored sufficiently, at least in Mississippi, to determine whether compliance has been attained.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT RESPONSE

The second question is, What has the Justice Department done? And this is of course the great tragedy. The fact is the Justice Department has not responded to these problems. In fact, in the 30 cases which came from the Supreme Court in Alexander v. Holmes County in October, it became manifestly clear to all of us that children would be segregated in the classroom when they were ordered to integrate in January. During conferences with the attorneys for the Department of Justice we presented them with evidence to demonstrate that the children would be segregated once integrated within the school building.

The Department of Justice took the position that such segregation should not be attacked until September. This position was taken notwithstanding a decision by the Supreme Court which ordered integration at once.

On faculty integration, it seems to me they ignore the problem. Their responsibility ends, they think, once the children are integrated in the school building.

So, you have the order in most cases, but you have no effective control and policing in the school districts once the orders are entered. Senator MONDALE. Does the Justice Department monitor these court orders to see if they are being obeyed?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. I would say they should but all indications are that they are not.

Senator MONDALE. If you were a recalcitrant school board based on present Justice Department policy, you would not mind a court order because no one is going to enforce it; is that correct?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Unfortunately, that is the situation.
Senator MONDALE. Is that, in fact, what is happening?
Mr. LEVENTHAL. Yes; in many areas in the South.

EMERGENCY SCHOOL ASSISTANCE ACT AND NON-COMPLIANCE

Senator MONDALE. So, under the administration's proposed bill particularly under the provision which doubles the allotment for Federal court order districts, many school districts that are under these orders but which actually are not in compliance, will be rewarded not only for their recalcitrance but also despite the fact that they are not obeying the law of the land. The Federal Government would be paying money to them for that lawlessness.

Would that be an accurate forecast?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Yes, sir; it would appear the Government is offering a premium for recalcitrance.

Again, it is not clear what position the Government will take in its cases in Mississippi in September. We can only report on those cases in Mississippi in September. We can only report on those cases that

have come down from the Supreme Court of the United States. The Government's position is that additional time is necessary and that they will abuse executive prerogatives and not enforce the law.

COMPLIANCE JEFFERSON DAVIS COUNTY: ONE-SIDED DESEGREGATION

Senator MONDALE. Is Jefferson County one of the county boards. involved in the recent decision?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Jefferson Davis County is. There is a Jefferson Davis County I believe in every southern State.

Senator Mondale, Jefferson Davis County is a good example of a district that is being asked to integrate not under court order but voluntarily after negotiations with HEW and the Department of Justice. For several weeks, there have been negotiations in Jackson between representatives of school boards and representatives of the Department of Justice. At these sessions, the Justice Department is maintaining that you either integrate voluntarily or you will be sued next week.

Jefferson Davis County submitted a plan which the Justice Department approved, one which did not involve in any way the black community. Negotiations were between the school board and the Department of Justice and the school board represents the white community.

Jefferson Davis County submitted a plan to HEW which was approved. That plan is one which discriminates against blacks. It does integrate the children, but it either closes black schools or converts black high schools to elementary schools when they are the best facilities available.

When HEW approved this racially discriminatory plan, the black community submitted a lengthy petition to the Department of Justice requesting reconsideration. This petition was signed perhaps by 500 or 600 black citizens of Jefferson Davis County. I don't think I have to remind you what a Herculean task it is in Jefferson Davis County, given the repression of blacks, to get 500 or 600 signatures from the black community. That is how outraged the black community was.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: RESPONSE TO COMPLAINTS

When this petition and this request for modification was submitted to the Department of Justice and HEW, a letter was sent out to the black community of Jefferson Davis County stating, that if you don't like the plan, you may file a law suit. No relief was offered.

Senator MONDALE. Who said this? The Justice Department?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Yes. The response of the Department of Justice was there might very well be some violations in the plan but your remedy is to file a private law suit. This is, of course, outrageous. It ignores the responsibility of the Department of Justice to the black community.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: BLACK ATTITUDES

There is another dimension here, Senator. The blacks of Mississippi over the years have looked to the Department of Justice for assistance. They have always considered the Congress of the United States and the Department of Justice friends who will enforce their rights. It has come as a great disappointment to the blacks of Mississippi that

their chief ally is no longer there. It is one which as my brothers indicated undermines the confidence of blacks in the litigation process, undermines the confidence of blacks in the United States and can only injure us as a people.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND COMPLIANCE

Senator MONDALE. Do they view the Justice Department now as shifting from the posture of a friend to that of a neutral or what posture do they think the Justice Department has taken?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. I think it depends upon the district. In some cases the support is there but waning. In other cases, the position is the Department of Justice is neutral.

In Jefferson Davis County and in Lawrence County, a second example, the position is they have lost a friend and now have an enemy.

Senator MONDALE. Has the general direction of the Justice Department, in your opinion, encouraged resistance and encouraged violation of these court orders?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Senator Mondale, as I indicated earlier, unless these school districts know that the law is going to be enforced, they will violate the law. That is why I must return to the original thrust of the bill and find it out of touch with our problems.

If the United States has money available, we need policemen and I think policemen will get the job done and a commitment to integration will get the job done far more than some undefined program of financial assistance.

There has to be enforcement of the law-that has been the key to compliance.

DESEGREGATION: MONEY VERSUS GOOD FAITH

Senator MONDALE. Don't they argue that if you put one billion and a half dollars on achieving integration, that will be enough to encourage them to do so?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Our experience with title I, as has already been pointed out, demonstrates they will take the money only if they can misuse the money. I confess that there are a handful of districts that intend to comply with the law, perhaps one out of 10. These districts are under pressure constantly to return to the position or to achieve or take the position that their neighboring districts across the county line are taking. Every time the Congress of the United States or the President of the United States indicates that it is not prepared to enforce the law, then those districts that are complying with the law are under pressure to step backward.

TOKENISM-YAZOO CITY

Senator MONDALE. Aren't things going well in Yazoo City? I read in a distinguished journal that things were great in Yazoo.

Mr. LEVENTHAL. There is a motion pending against the Yazoo municipal separate school district for contempt judgment. In deference to Mr. Morris who was raised in Yazoo City, his position is one which emphasizes the problems of the white community, ignores the great problems of the black community, and finds segregated classrooms harmless.

I read his article and it would lead you to believe that the white community is the one that has the problem and bears the burden. While I appreciate and respect his view, given his emphasis, the fact of the matter is that Yazoo City is by segregating children by classrooms, insulting the black children. Such segregation, uncorrected, places a burden upon black children which they may never be able to overcome in future years.

Senator MONDALE. In other words, the Yazoo white and black kids are integrated only in the sense they walk through the same front door.

TOKENISM: KEMPER COUNTY

Mr. LEVENTHAL. In Kemper County, Miss., the De Kalb High School is constructed so that each classroom or most of the classrooms can be entered from the outdoors. Black children enter classrooms in the De Kalb High School through a door leading from the outside and never get into the hallways. There is a motion for contempt judgment pending against Kemper County.

In Yazoo City, they do share the same hall.

It is interesting to note in Kemper County that the lawsuit was filed by the United States of America and the motion for contempt judgment was filed by amicus curiae not by the Justice Department. We attempted to get Justice to file a motion for contempt judgment against Kemper County, but they refused.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND DELAY

The Department of Justice has determined to put this off until September. Whenever you approach them and say these children are being discriminated against and there is a horrible situation in Kemper or Yazoo, they say they will have to acquiesce in this activity through September.

Senator MONDALE. Is there any rational basis for waiting until then? Would not now be the time to try to straighten out the rules?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. The Supreme Court says now is the time.

Senator MONDALE. They have construed the Supreme Court order requiring now to mean later?

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Yes, in fact, they construed the court order as meaning September because they argued for September. I cannot emphasize enough

Senator MONDALE. So, in fact, the Justice Department is taking the same position now which was rejected by the Supreme Court when they tried to assert it before.

Mr. LEVENTHAL. Exactly. They argued in the Supreme Court of the United States that these school districts should be given until September. They lost the case but adhere to their original position.

Senator MONDALE. Mr. Chambers, would you make your statement, please.

STATEMENT OF JULIUS LEVONNE CHAMBERS

Mr. CHAMBERS. Senator Mondale, I agree with much of what Mr. Leventhal has said about the role of the Department of Justice, par

46-125-70-pt. 3B-14

ticularly since 1969. I do have, however, some different opinion about the need for moneys for some of the educational needs in some of the districts.

Senator MONDALE. Would you move the microphone a little closer to you? You may proceed at this point to your prepared statement.

BROWN AND EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Mr. CHAMBERS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appear before you today as a member of a panel of civil rights attorneys engaged in litigation to affect equal educational opportunities. I thank you for the opportunity to bring to you my observations.

One of the sad facts the past 15 years have taught us is how little the vast majority of Americans realize that the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education really meant that America accord equal opportunities to all citizens irrespective of race.

There are some among us even today who do not read such a mandate in the Supreme Court's decision. They have read in Brown and in many of the subsequent lower court decisions the perpetuation of a racist's philosophy.

DE JURE-DE FACTO DISTINCTION

A careful analysis of what has been done in school desegregation demonstrates that much of this is true. Many black Americans, however, particularly in the South read the Brown decision to mean much more. Our experiences had not exposed us to the hypocrisy of northern racism where freedom of opportunity is proclaimed but apartheid is the fact. Southern segregation was mandated by law, indeed, embedded in our State constitutions. Our laws proclaimed the sections of town in which we were to live, which educational facilities we could use, our jobs, our social status, our role in society. We expected no more, for our place in society had been clearly prepared and planned. Brown, therefore, meant much more to us than to northern blacks. We did not see beyond the narrow confines of our own parochialism. If the Supreme Court said in Brown that racially compelled segregation was unconstitutional, clearly it meant, at least to us, the elimination of all forms of racism. We hailed the decision as a great milestone in our efforts for an equal chance in the American scene. We, therefore, began with enthusiasm the frustrating effort to achieve Brown's promise.

My decision to go into law was made about this time. Like most black southerners, I had had limited opportunities and had been pointedly apprised of the Negro role in society. My great hope was that in some way through the judicial processes, I might help others to break this barrier.

SEGREGATION: SOUTHERN VERSUS NORTHERN STYLE

I completed law school and began my experience with the NAACP legal defense and educational fund with the firm determination of finally seeing the decision in Brown fully implemented, brushing aside any consideration of latent racism that I may have subsequently read