In its previous reports on equal protection of the laws in public schools, the Commission has presented an overview of administrative, legislative, and judicial developments since 1954 in all the Southern States where schools were organized and operated on a racially segregated basis in 1954 pursuant to State law.
Believing that studies of smaller areas in greater depth than has heretofore been possible would lead to a better understanding of the desegregation process and its problem, the Commission decided to undertake a serious of studies in individual Southern States. The first of this series which includes reports on the States of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, follows.