Education, and Welfare announced that unless
state officials relented it would start a crash program of
construction and operation of integrated schools for military
dependents in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.[23-58]

[Footnote 23-55: Ltr, Actg U.S. Comm of Ed to
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Fla., et al.,
6 Nov 62, with incls; see also Memo for Rcd, Evans,
20 Nov 62, sub: Schools for Dependents, copies of
both in CMH.]

[Footnote 23-56: AFNS, Release No. 2851, 17 Aug 62.]

[Footnote 23-57: Four similar suits were filed in
January 1963 regarding segregation in Huntsville
and Mobile, Alabama; Gulfport and Biloxi,
Mississippi; and Bossier Parish, Louisiana. Ltr,
Atty Gen to President, 24 Jan 63 (released by White
House on 26 Jan 63), copy in CMH. See New York
_Times_, September 18, 1962.]

[Footnote 23-58: Washington _Post_, January 17, 1963.]

Some local commanders took immediate advantage of these emotional (p. 597)
appeals and administration pressures. The commandant of the Marine
Corps Schools, Quantico, for example, won an agreement from Stafford
County, Virginia, authorities that the county would open its high
school and two elementary schools to Marine Corps dependents without
regard to race. The commandant also announced that schools in Albany,
Georgia, had agreed to take military dependents on an integrated
basis.[23-59] The Air Force announced that schools near Eglin,
Whiting, and MacDill Air Force Bases in Florida as well as those near
six bases in Texas, including Sheppard and Connally, would integrate.
The Under Secretary of the Navy reported similar successes in school
districts in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. And the commander of Fort
Belvoir started discussions with the Fairfax County, Virginia, school
board looking toward the speedy desegregation of schools near the
fort.

[Footnote 23-59: Both the Marine Corps and the Navy
operated installations in the vicinity of Albany,
Georgia.]

Lest any commander hesitate, the Department of Defense issued a new
policy in regard to the education of military dependents. On 15 July
1963 Assistant Secretary Paul