The Skipwith Case

Throughout her career, Polier used her court to fight religious and racial discrimination. Her most famous and influential decision in this battle was the 1958 In the matter of Skipwith. The Skipwiths, along with a group of other black parents, boycotted the segregated public school where they believed their daughter was receiving an inferior education. In response, the Board of Education charged the parents with neglect.

Residential discrimination meant that New York public schools were segregated in reality (de facto), but not by law (de jure) as in the South. This made northern segregation much more difficult to combat in court, but Polier's Skipwith decision helped publicize the issue and make it more vulnerable to legal action.

source | full image

source | full image

Polier ruled that while the Board was not responsible for existing de facto segregation, it was still at fault for providing an inferior education to children in non-white schools, which had demonstrably fewer and less qualified teachers. Polier condemned the Board of Education as committing a "terrible injustice" towards children, "who already have to suffer the blighting effect of segregation." She stated that until the Board of Education corrected this situation, "it has no moral or legal right to ask that this Court shall punish parents or deprive them of custody of their children, for refusal to accept an unconstitutional condition which exists in the schools."

Notes

Next—Wilder v. Sugarman