We believe that a policy which undertakes to force the association of one race witli the other against the will of either, by court decree under threat of fine or imprison ment, is destructive of mutual good will and respeej. breeds resentment and animosities, and is injurious to the true interests of all the people. We believe that the molding of the minds and characters of our chil dren is tiie sacred duty and the ; priceless natural right and obliga- i tion of parents. Constitutional Right Freedom of decision with respect to these considerations touching as they do the most intimate relations of the people and the most cherished natural rights and duties of parent hood is absolutely essential to the maintenance, operation, manage ment and control of our public schools. We conceive this freedom to be among the sacred rigljts “r< tained by the people" under the Ninth Amendment, o f the Federal Constitution. Among the reserved rights and powers of the states, guaranteed to the State of Virginia under the Tenth Amendment, is the power to maintain racially separate public schools We in not perceive Tm the exercise of this power has ever been prohibited to the states by any pro vision of the Federal Constitution. We believe that this power can be prohibited to the states only by the states themselves. To concede the right of a Federal Court to withdraw tiiis power from the individual states is to concede that all the rights and powers of the states and of the people are enjoyed at the sufferance of the judiciary and that the guarantees of the liberties of the people are no longer fixed in tiie Constitution itself. Therefor.?;. Fed eral Courts having refused to recog nize these most fundamental, inti mate and cacred rights and tiie pro found necessity that they be res-: pected. Viiginia has been compelled to fix its course in defense of these rights of her people. We do most solemnly commend his Excellency.; Governor Thomas B. Stanley and; the members of the legislature of Virginia for their patriotic devotion to the liberties of their people and for the leadership they have given the people of Virginia in this crucial time. We pledge our support of the policy implicit in the measures adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia in its Special Session of 1956. We declare our conviction that these policies founded as they are upon that first American tenet of liberty that free men should not be taxed against their will and without their consent for a purpose to which they are deeply opposed—to be botii sound and in the finest patriotic tradition of the Commonwealth. Sen. Byrd Praised We do most solemnly commend our great senior Senator from Vir ginia. Harry Flood Byrd, for his

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