Norwood v. Harrison

413 U.S. 455 (1973)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Appellants filed a class action alleging that certain of the private schools excluded students on the basis of race and that, by supplying textbooks to students attending such private schools, appellees, acting for the State, have provided direct state aid to racially segregated education. Administration of the textbook program is vested in the Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board, whose members include the Governor, the State Superintendent of Education, and three experienced educators appointed by the Governor for four-year terms. Appellees send to each school district, and, in recent years, to each private school requisition forms listing approved textbooks available from the State for free distribution to students. The District Court found that 34,000 students are presently receiving state-owned textbooks while attending 107 all-white, nonsectarian private schools which have been formed throughout the state since the inception of public school desegregation. In dismissing the complaint, the District Court held that the statutory scheme was not motivated by a desire to further racial segregation in the public schools. The books were provided to the students, and not to the schools. The District Court concluded that the textbook loans did not interfere with or impede the State's acknowledged duty to establish a unitary school system.