Green v. County School Board - The Facts At Hand

New Kent County in Virginia was divided nearly equally between black and white citizens. However, the County School Board of New Kent County had long maintained a segregated public school system. A school on one side of the county served only white students, while a school on the other side of the county was composed entirely of black students. In order to comply with a desegregation order, the board adopted a plan that allowed students every year to choose which school they wanted to attend. A number of black pupils chose to attend the district's all-white school. However, no white pupils chose to attend the district's all-black school. A group of students and their parents challenged the plan, claiming it was not an acceptable means of achieving a single non-racial school system.

The case first went before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The district court approved the freedom of choice plan once the school board agreed to hear teachers on a non-discriminatory basis. Green and the other petitioners then took their case to the U.S. court of appeals. The court of appeals affirmed the district court's ruling on the issue of freedom of choice, leaving the petitioners one last recourse, the U.S. Supreme Court.