directed all local commanders in areas
where public education was still segregated--large parts of some
fifteen states--to counsel parents on the procedures available for the
transfer of their children to integrated schools, on how to appeal
assignment to segregated schools, and on legal action as an
alternative to accepting local school board decisions to bar their
children.[23-60] In December 1963 Fitt drew up contingency plans for
the education of dependent children in the event of local school
closings.[23-61] In April of 1964 Fitt reminded the services that
Defense Department policy called for the placement of military
dependents in integrated schools and that commanders were expected to
make "appropriate efforts" on behalf of the children to eliminate any
deviation from that policy.[23-62] In effect, base commanders were
being given a specific role in the fight to secure for black and white
dependents equal access to public schools.

[Footnote 23-60: Memo, ASD (M) for SA et al., 15 Jul
63, sub: Assignment of Dependents of Military
Personnel to Public Schools, ASD(M) 291.2.]

[Footnote 23-61: Memo, DASD (CR) for Under SecNav, 4
Dec 63, sub: Dependent Schooling in Closed School
Districts; Memo, Asst SecNav for DASD (CR), 20 Dec
63, same sub; both in SecNav files, GenRecsNav. See
also Memo, DASD (CR) for Burke Marshall et al., 9
Mar 64, sub: Possible September 1964 School
Closings Affecting Military Dependents, copy in
CMH.]

[Footnote 23-62: Memo, DASD (CR) for Under SA et al.,
17 Apr 64, sub: Assignment of Dependents of
Military Personnel to Public Schools; see also idem
for ASD (M), 2 Apr 64, sub: Segregated Schools and
Military Dependents. For an example of how this new
responsibility was conveyed to local commanders,
see BuPers Notice 5350.5, 26 Jul 63, "Assignment of
Dependents of Military Personnel to Public
Schools." Copies of all in CMH.]

The action taken by base commanders under this responsibility might
alter patterns of segregated education in some areas, but in the long
run any attempt to integrate schools through a program of