The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has appealed Gardendale, Alabama’s creation of an independent school system within a predominantly black school district, saying the city’s whites had been allowed to secede.
The appeal follows a hesitant ruling in April by U.S. District Judge Madeline Haikala that allowed the town to form an independent school district from the surrounding Jefferson County, The Washington Post reported.
Gardendale’s reason for separating the school district came down to children benefiting from a smaller school system, the Post said.
The NAACP went to U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
The organization’s senior counsel, Chris Kemmitt, told NBC News that “the District Court agreed that Gardendale’s bid to form its own school district was designed to exclude black school children.”
He noted that, in filing the appeal, they were “simply asking the Circuit Court to follow that finding to its logical conclusion and prohibit Gardendale from creating a separate, segregated school district at the expense of the broader community."
The Jefferson County School District comprises 56 schools, which include four public schools located in Gardendale.