Unidentified Man Comments on Private Schools
(WDBJ Television, Roanoke, VA)

The unidentified man said the city council declared it would not operate a permanent school system other than the segregated system already in operation. If the city schools opened on an integrated basis, then a private organization said it would create a "rival series of schools" to operate "permanently" in the city. The unidentified man also said the city would help those who wanted "alternatives" for their children in case the schools closed. Some of the founders of segregated private schools considered the schools a kind of safety-valve, a means to prevent the hot-headed segregationists from feeling pressured to integrate. In Virginia eight of these schools were formed and continued to operate into the 1970s.