The county is expected to ask the court to dismiss the lawsuit, which focuses on dismantling the three-school district format in the county. The case is set for Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the superior courtroom at the county courthouse on Ferrell Lane in Halifax.

In a joint statement on the matter, coalition Chair Rebecca Copeland and county NAACP President David Harvey called the case “the most important civil rights case for this generation.”

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“One has to go back to 1984 and the Horace Johnson v. Halifax County case to find a legal suit comparable to Silver in this county,” Harvey said in the statement. “That case concerned voting rights. The Silver case deals with the constitutional right to a sound basic education for all children in Halifax County. Both cases have civil rights issues at their core.”

The county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the coalition and three parents are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed by the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights.

Copeland said in the statement the “hearing is a great opportunity for students of civics and public policy to observe important court proceedings. The county commissioners have moved to dismiss the case filed against them.”

Attorneys for both sides will argue and Copeland said advocates for public education will want to pay close attention because the outcome of the case could affect how K-12 public schools are managed in Halifax County. “The plaintiffs are seeking, as the first step to improving education, the consolidation of the existing three school districts into one.”

Under a unified district, Copeland said, “Not only would overhead for administrative and transportation costs be reduced and resources more efficiently directed toward teachers and learning enrichment activities in the classroom, but the racially-polarized and harmful stigma of good and bad districts within Halifax could be erased. Times have changed. Our schools must, too.”