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The HEW accepts desegregation plans from nine university systems in an effort to assure compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
1974 (Jun 21)
The U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) accepted university system desegregation plans from nine states, eight of them in the South. The HEW action stemmed from an order issued in February 1973, by U.S. District Court Judge John H. Pratt in Washington, D.C., which required the department to increase efforts to assure that the states were in compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. States winning approval of their desegregation plans were Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The HEW rejected Mississippi's plan and announced that it would initiate a lawsuit against that state. Louisiana refused to submit a plan and was promptly sued by the HEW. Louisiana officials had protested attempts by federal authorities to force a merger of the state's Black and white universities. At the time, Black educators and civil rights leaders across the country had become increasingly divided over the question of desegregation in higher education. Many Blacks feared losses of jobs, social status, and aspects of their cultural heritage through desegregation plans that involved mergers. Black students, particularly those in state-supported institutions, formed a nationwide coalition called "Save Black Schools” to protest school mergers or other actions that might destroy the racial identification of their colleges. On the other hand, many civil rights leaders continued to clamor for desegregation at all costs. In approving the new desegregation plans, HEW Civil Rights Director Peter E. Holmes remarked, “We have seen the development of consciousness, a sensitivity and an awareness to the problems of predominantly Black institutions and minority students that was absent in these states in previous years.”
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.