[2] Instead of funding public schools, Prince Edward County provided tuition grants for all students, regardless of their race, to use for private nonsectarian education.

[6] The Fourth Circuit reversed, holding that the District Court should have awaited the state law determinations of whether the county was required to operate schools.

The case was argued by Robert L. Carter for the NAACP (Samuel W. Tucker and Frank D. Reeves on the brief); Virginia assistant attorney general R.D.

The Supreme Court, in a decision authored by Justice Hugo Black, ordered the schools reopened.

For the same reasons the District Court may, if necessary to prevent further racial discrimination, require the Supervisors to exercise the power that is theirs to levy taxes to raise funds adequate to reopen, operate, and maintain without racial discrimination a public school system in Prince Edward County like that operated in other counties in Virginia.This case marked the first time that the Supreme Court ordered a county government to exercise their power of taxation.