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WDBJ September Showdown Interview with Luther Carter
(WDBJ Television, Roanoke, VA)

Luther Carter, a reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, pointed out that the Pupil Placement Board for Virginia under the 1956 legislation (Pupil Placement Act) maintained exclusive state authority to place students in schools; however, he said, the City of Norfolk set up a process for deciding at the local level how to respond to black applicants seeking a transfer to a white school. The Norfolk city school board plan set up a set of criteria for this decision, taking into account the distance from the applicant's home to the schools, the scholastic aptitude of the student, the availability of seats and room in the schools, and the character of the student as determined in an interview. Carter thought that the plan in Norfolk differed from the Charlottesville school board plan because Charlottesville provided that a student might be assigned to a school outside of his or her zoned district, and therefore a black student applicant to a white school could be assigned to the black school in another district. In Norfolk, according to Carter, the plan made no such provision and students would have to be assigned within their district. Carter thought that parents were organizing private acadmies in preparation for school closings in the fall.
About the film
  • Date: July 13, 1958
  • Sound: Yes
  • Duration: 04:38
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