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[Affidavit for reassignment of African American students to all-white schools]

4.1.975-01

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Title	[Affidavit for reassignment of African American students to all-white schools]
Date	1957-08-28
Creator	Smith, Benjamin Lee
Biographical/historical note	Benjamin Lee Smith was born February 6, 1893 in, Caldwell County, N.C. He received his A.B. from Duke University in 1916, and his M.A. from Duke in 1937. He served as superintendent of schools in the western North Carolina cities of Forest City, Rutherford-Spindale, and Shelby before assuming the same position in Greensboro, N.C., in 1935. His twenty-three year tenure in Greensboro included the years immediately following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision ordering desegregation of public schools. In 1959, he participated in the National Civil Rights hearing on school integration. Smith died in 1961. Ben L. Smith High School in Greensboro is named for him.
Subject headings	Segregation in education--United States Race relations
Topics	School desegregation, 1954-1958
Place	Greensboro (N.C.)
Description	This six-page affidavit pertains to the reassignment of six African American students to all-white schools Gillespie Elementary School and Greensboro Senior High in 1957, documenting Greensboro's first sucessful attempt at desegregating it's public school system. The affidavit was submitted by Greensboro public school superintendent Benjamin L. Smith to the Greensboro Division of the Guilford County Superior Court . In the affidavit, Superintendent Smith argues that because of Brown v. Board of Education, the school board cannot deny the applicants reassignment. He argues that school administrators have been given plenty of preparation for desegregation in the three years following the court decision, and that integrated classes at Carolina Convalescent Hospital and Greensboro Cerebral Palsy School, as well as pupils at local universities, have been successful. For these reasons, Smith argues, the reassignments should be granted. A month later, the students—Josephine Boyd, Brenda Florence, Jimmie Florence, Elijah Herring, Russell Herring, and Harold Davis—were enrolled at their prospective schools, desegregating Greensboro schools for the first time.
Type	text
Original format	reports
Original dimensions	8.5" x 14"
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Language	en
Contributing institution	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University
Source collection	RL.01210 Benjamin Lee Smith Papers
Finding aid link	http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/smithbenjaminlee/
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
Additional rights information	COPYRIGHT NOT EVALUATED. The copyright status of this item has not been fully evaluated and may vary for different parts of the item. The user is responsible for determining actual copyright status for any reuse of the material.
Object ID	Duke_RL.01210.0975
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5305 -- http://library.uncg.edu/
Sponsor	LSTA grant administered by the North Carolina State Library -- http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/ld/grants/lsta.html
OCLC number	884367529

[Affidavit for reassignment of African American students to all-white schools]

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[Affidavit for reassignment of African American students...

[Affidavit for reassignment of African American students...