University of Virginia Library

In accordance with your request, I have given careful consideration to Mr.
Talbott's letter to you of May 21, 1956, asking for an opinion from me on the
admissibility of a male Negro applicant to the College of Liberal Arts of the
University of Virginia. The application is accompanied by credentials which
show him to be otherwise entitled to admission. The fact that the State of
Virginia maintains a liberal arts college for Negroes at Petersburg, under the
name of Virginia State College, has also been noted.

It will be recalled that the case of Swanson v. The Rector and Visitors
of the University of Virginia settled the question in Virginia in regard to
the admission of Negroes to the postgraduate schools of its state universities.
In that case it was admitted the State did not provide separate facilities
for postgraduate studies. However, under the decision of the Supreme Court,
(rendered by Chief Justice Vinson), in Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 70 S.
Ct. 848, 94 L.Ed. 1114, where Texas had undertaken to provide a separate law
school, the decision would have been the same even if Virginia had undertaken
to provide separate postgraduate facilities.

Is the fact that the State of Virginia maintains a liberal arts college
for negroes sufficient to justify the University of Virginia refusing
admission to a Negro to its College of Liberal Arts? If this were a case of
first impression there might be some justification for this position. However,
upon facts which are identical with those presented here, in Frasier v. Board
of Trustees of the University of North Carolina (134 F. Supp. 589), Judge Soper
in 1955, speaking for a three man court consisting of Circuit Court Judge Dobie,
District Judge Hayes, and himself, upheld the right of Negro applicants
otherwise qualified, to admission to the undergraduate schools of that
University. This decision was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court per curiam
in a memorandum decision on March 5, 1956 (76 S. Ct. 467).

In my opinion, there is no distinction between the facts submitted to the
Court in Frasier v. Board of Trustees and the facts presented to the Board on
application for admission of a Negro to the College of Liberal Arts, and I am
further of the opinion that in the event of litigation the Supreme Court
decision in the North Carolina case will control.

Faced with the decision in the Frasier case, the refusal of the Board of
Visitors to admit the present Negro applicant to its College of Liberal Arts,
in my opinion, can only result in litigation the decision in which will be
swiftly rendered and the result a foregone conclusion. It would seem unfortunate
to provide such an easy victory for the attorneys for the N.A.A.C.P.

I also understand an application has been received from a Negress,
residing in Fredericksburg, for admission to Mary Washington College. The
fact the applicant is a female in that case does not, in my opinion, affect
the situation from a legal standpoint. The Supreme Court decision in the
Frasier case will also control here.

If the question of integration is still to be fought in the Courts, then
a better battleground than the ones presented here should be selected and legal
weapons provided, not now in existence, which would provide some hope of success.