JUDGE MERHIGE’S LITTLE PLAN

ederal Dis trictJudge Robert R. Merhige Jr. issued an ukase on Jan. 10 commanding the consolidation by September of the public school system of three separate municipalities in the Richmond, Va. metropolitan area for the purpose of diluting a majority-Negro city system with two majority-white county ones. Judge Merhige proposes to take the systems of the City of Richmond (43,000 pupils, 70 per cent black), the County of Henrico (34,000 pupils, 92 per cent white), and the County of Chesterfield (24,000 pupils, 91 per cent white), add buses, shake well, and produce a brave new merged (merhiged, as the natives say) school system of 101,000 pupils, 66 per cent white, 34

per cent black, encompassing 752

RH

About the Author

Robert G. Holland

ederal Dis trictJudge Robert R. Merhige Jr. issued an ukase on Jan. 10 commanding the consolidation by September of the public school system of three separate municipalities in the Richmond, Va. metropolitan area for the purpose of diluting a majority-Negro city system with two majority-white county ones. Judge Merhige proposes to take the systems of the City of Richmond (43,000 pupils, 70 per cent black), the County of Henrico (34,000 pupils, 92 per cent white), and the County of Chesterfield (24,000 pupils, 91 per cent white), add buses, shake well, and produce a brave new merged (merhiged, as the natives say) school system of 101,000 pupils, 66 per cent white, 34

per cent black, encompassing 752