While Darden favored admitting African Americans to professional and graduate schools after the Supreme Court mandated such, he otherwise shared the "separate but equal" stance of many white Southerners of the pre-"Brown v. Board of Education" (1954) era. In 1950 Darden advocated that public schools remain, in his words, racially "segregated," but "first-rate." In that year, following federal litigation, Gregory Swanson became the first black student admitted to the University of Virginia School of Law. Darden also testified as a witness favoring segregation in "Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County", one of the companion cases to "Brown", and Judge Albert Bryan, in the 3-judge decision upholding the unequal schools which the Supreme Court reversed, specifically cited Darden's testimony as influential. In August 1954, Darden also addressed a Ruritan gathering in Southampton and warned about the white race being only a tiny fraction of the population.