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Volume 1 Number 4 RESPONSE TO THE DECISION
Henry L. Marsh III, the primary attorney for the plaintiffs, has indicated that he will appeal the case to the Supreme Court. "The struggle started in Norfolk in 1956, and it still goes on ... We will continue to fight to resist the resegregation of the children in Norfolk. I think it will encourage other school districts to try the same thing, and if it's not reversed, it will subject millions of black children to racial segregation all over the country." William Bradford Reynolds, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights issued a prepared statement:
It is time in Norfolk as in many other school districts around the country that have sustained for years good faith compliance with court -ordered desegregation plans to restore to the local authorities full responsibility for running their public schools. The court's ruling in this case achieves this result and is a much needed breath of fresh air in our continuing efforts to achieve meaningful desegregation that is more fully sensitive to the educational needs of public school students not only in Norfolk but throughout the country.
The Assistant Attorney General indicated that there may be more than 150 school districts eligible to end their court ordered school desegregation plans because of the Norfolk case. He characterized the case as "an outline of procedures a school system must follow to free itself from court desegregation decrees. " While, Mr Reynolds stated that the Department of Justice would not seek "to launch a campaign against busing," he indicated that the Department would have discussions with school districts declared unitary by the courts, and that such districts probably have no reason to delay efforts to end court ordered desegregation plans. According to statistics released by the DOJ, of the 530 school desegregation cases Justice is involved in, 164 have been declared unitary (primarily in Georgia and Alabama). William L. Taylor, director of the Center for National Policy Review and counsel in numerous school desegregation cases, indicated that the decision told school districts, for the first time, that they could institute plans whose effect would be resegregation (Washington Post, Feb. 19, 1986, A14).
Julius Chambers, Director Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, in noting Justice's position in the case, stated:
Its position stands as the starkest proof possible of the real intention of the Reagan Administration with respect to school desegregation namely to reverse 30 years of painstakingly built progress.
In discussing the impact of the decision in human terms, William Taylor said "There are black children living in Norfolk in total racial isolation who through the school desegregation plan had been able to escape that isolation. Test scores for many of these children have risen. This opportunity has now been closed off, and they will return to a life of racial isolation."
  
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