When school board members in Springfield MA were charged with discriminating against black students 1963 what was their primary defense?

The primary defense of the Springfield, MA school board members in 1963, when charged with discriminating against Black students, was that their actions were not intentionally discriminatory and that any disparities in educational opportunities were due to factors other than race, such as socioeconomic status or housing patterns. They argued that segregation was a de facto result of neighborhood demographics, not a product of deliberate school board policy. This was a common defense used in many school desegregation cases.