Rolfe v. County Board of Education of Lincoln County, Tenn.

Decision Date19 February 1968
Docket NumberNo. 17498.,17498.
Citation391 F.2d 77
PartiesMrs. Elvira S. ROLFE and Mrs. Bernice L. Peebles, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF LINCOLN COUNTY TENNESSEE. etc., et al., Defendants-Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Robert W. Stevens, Fayetteville, Tenn., (Stevens & Bagley, Fayetteville, Tenn., on the brief), for appellants.

Avon N. Williams, Jr., Nashville, Tenn. (Jack Greenberg, James M. Nabrit, III, Michael J. Henry, New York City, Z. Alexander Looby, Nashville, Tenn., on the brief), for appellees.

Before CELEBREZZE and COMBS, Circuit Judges, and CECIL, Senior Circuit Judge.

COMBS, Circuit Judge.

The Superintendent of Schools and the County Board of Education of Lincoln County, Tennessee, appeal from a judgment of the District Court holding that the discharge of two schoolteachers, appellees here, was discriminatory because it was based on consideration of race.

The judgment directs that the two teachers be reinstated; that they be compensated in damages; that the board of education establish objectives for the employment and retention of teachers consistent with due process and equal protection of the laws; and that counsel fees in favor of the teachers be taxed as costs.

The court's jurisdiction was invoked under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343(3) and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act).

It is established by the record and was found by the district court:

The appellees, Mrs. Rolfe and Mrs. Peebles, are Negroes; they were nontenure teachers in the Lincoln County school system assigned to West End High School which had an all Negro faculty and all Negro student body. Until the school year 1965-66, the Lincoln County public schools were operated under a compulsory biracial system. In order to qualify for federal funds, receipt of which was contingent upon compliance with the Civil Rights Act, the board of education adopted a plan of desegregation which was submitted to the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The desegregation plan provided that integration of teachers and other school personnel would begin with the 1965-66 school term. While the desegregation plan was adopted on May 10, 1965, it was apparently intended that, for the 1965-66 school year, complete faculty segregation would be continued at the all Negro West End High School, as well as at the predominantly white Central High School. In any event, only Negro teachers were employed at West End and only white teachers at Central for the 1965-66 school term. Fourteen new teachers were hired for the Lincoln County school system, all of whom were white. In May, 1965, the superintendent of schools appeared before the teachers of West End High and told them that the "chances were" that school would lose some of its teachers as a result of the desegregation plan.

During the first week of the 1965-66 school term, which commenced about August 23, 1965, there was a significant decrease in enrollment at West End High School. Many students transferred to Central and others transferred to other schools.

The Department of Health, Education and Welfare approved the Lincoln County desegregation plan on August 31, 1965. The board of education met on September 7 to review the situation and take the "necessary steps to correct its teaching load." Teachers were transferred from one school to another and from one position to another. Of the non-tenure Negro teachers in the system, only one remained when the board had finished. No teacher of the Caucasian race was discharged. Five members of the all Negro faculty at West End were discharged, effective at the close of the following school day. Two of the five had tenure status and were given other teaching positions in the system. Another was given a job in the superintendent's office. No provision was made for Mrs. Rolfe and Mrs. Peebles.

Both Mrs. Rolfe and Mrs. Peebles had taught for two years at West End and had accepted reelection for the 1965-66 school year. Mrs. Rolfe was a science teacher and had six years teaching experience prior to coming to Lincoln County. Mrs. Peebles was a mathematics teacher and had taught two years prior to joining the Lincoln County system. Each of them held the degree of Bachelor of Science. Neither of them had ever received any reprimand or complaint about the performance of their duties as teachers.

Although teachers were elected for employment within the system as a whole and the board reserved the right to transfer a teacher to another school, there were no definite objective standards for comparison of all teachers within the system. Non-tenure teachers were considered as new applicants each school year. When the decrease in enrollment at West End necessitated a decrease in the faculty, only members of the West End faculty were considered for reassignment or discharge. The only comparison made between teachers in the system was the comparison of each West End High teacher with others in the same school.

The district judge held on this state of facts that the comparison of Mrs. Rolfe and Mrs. Peebles only with other Negro teachers on the same faculty, for the purpose of determining discharge, was so restrictive as to be discriminatory. We agree.

At this date it is beyond contention that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids the selection and assignment of teachers on the basis of race. The board of education does not contest the finding that Mrs. Rolfe's and Mrs. Peebles' qualifications were compared only with those of the other faculty members at West End High in determining who would be discharged. They present the argument that five factors in the case prevent a ruling of discrimination. Those factors are: (1) the defendants could not have foreseen the decrease in enrollment at West End and by the time they became aware of the situation "it was too late to compare their qualifications with other teachers in the county and discharge the latter to create positions for them;" (2) Mrs. Rolfe and Mrs. Peebles had been reelected to West End High and their assignments could not be changed by the superintendent except with the approval of the board; (3) under Tennessee law the plaintiffs were not discharged but rather their...

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