Barksdale v. Springfield School Committee decision establishes that the Springfield public schools are not segregated.

U.S. Court of Appeals overturns a lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge George Sweeney on January 11, 1965, that the Springfield schools were segregated despite the fact that students were merely assigned to the schools nearest their homes because, “A non-white attendance of more than 50% in any one school is tantamount to segregation.” In overturning Sweeney’s decision, the appeals court declares, “We can accept no such constitutional right [to integrated schools],” and that “racial imbalance that resulted from an impartial application of the neighborhood school plan was not equivalent to segregation and there was no constitutional right to its absolute elimination.”