Reading Room Document

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act: School Lunch Program in Private Schools.

The document discusses the Department of Agriculture's request to reconsider the issue of providing aid to private schools under the school lunch program without assurances of compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The document presents three possible courses of action: not insisting on assurances from any institutions, insisting on assurances from all privately operated institutions, or insisting on assurances from all recipients except public schools. The Department of Agriculture favors the third approach, arguing that the exception for public schools should be narrowly construed. The document raises the question of whether to continue providing aid to institutions that discriminate and emphasizes the need for the federal government to make a decision on the matter. The conclusions reached in the document highlight the need for a decision on providing aid to institutions that do not comply with Title VI, and the questions presented for review include the potential impact of different courses of action on various types of institutions receiving federal aid.

March 26, 1965