United States v. Montgomery County Board of Education Carr v. Montgomery County Board of Education, s. 798

• Decision Date: 02 June 1969
• Docket Number: 997,Nos. 798,s. 798
• Citation: 395 U.S. 225,23 L.Ed.2d 263,89 S.Ct. 1670
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner, v. MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al. Arlam CARR, Jr., by Arlam Carr and Johnnie Cr r, etc., et al., Petitioners, v. MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

395 U.S. 225

89 S.Ct. 1670

23 L.Ed.2d 263

UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

v MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.

Arlam CARR, Jr., by Arlam Carr and Johnnie Cr r, etc.,

et al., Petitioners,

v. MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.

Nos. 798, 997.

Argued April 28, 1969.

Decided June 2, 1969.

Sol. Gen. Erwin N. Griswold and Jack Greenberg, New York City, for petitioners.

Joseph D. Phelps, Montgomery, Ala., for respondents.

Mr. Justice BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this action the United States District Court at Montgomery, Alabama, ordered the local Montgomery County Board of Education to bring about a racial desegregation of the faculty and the staff of the local county school system. 289 F.Supp. 647 (1968). Dissatisfied with the District Court's order, the board appelled. A panel of the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court's order but, by a two-to-one vote, modified it in part, 400 F.2d 1 (1968).¹ A petition for rehearing en banc was denied by an evenly divided court, six to six, thereby leaving standing the modifications in the District Court's order made by the panel.² On petitions of the United States as intervenor below in No. 798, and the individual plaintiffs in No. 997, we granted certiorari. 393 U.S. 1116, 89 S.Ct. 989, 22 L.Ed.2d 121 (1969).

Fifteen years ago, on May 17, 1954, we decided that segregation of the races in the public schools is unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873, 38 A.L.R.2d 1180 (Brown I). In that case we left undecided the manner in which the transition from segregated to unitary school systems would be achieved, and set the case down for another hearing, inviting the Attorney General of the United States and the Attorneys General of the States providing for racial segregation in the public schools to present their views on the best ways to implement and enforce our judgment. We devoted four days to the argument on this single problem, and all the affected parties were given the opportunity to present their views at length. After careful consideration of the many viewpoints so fully aired by the parties, we announced our decision in Brown II, 349 U.S. 294, 75 S.Ct. 753, 99 L.Ed. 1083 (1955). We held that the primary responsibility for abolishing the system of segregated schools would rest with the local school authorities. In some of the States that argued before us, the laws permitted but did not require racial segregation and we noted that in some of these States 'substantial steps to eliminate racial discrimination in public schools have already been taken * * *.' Id., at 299, 75 S.Ct., at 756. Many other States had for many years maintained a completely separate system of schools for whites and nonwhites, and the laws of these States, both civil and criminal, had been written to keep this segregated system of schools inviolate. The practices, habits, and customs had for generations made this segregated school system a fixed part of the daily life and expectations of the people. Recognizing these indisputable facts, we neither expected nor ordered that a complete abandonment of the old and adoption of a new system be accomplished overnight. The changes were to be made 'at the earliest practicable date' and with 'all deliberate speed.' Id., at 300, 301, 75 S.Ct., at 756. We were not content, however, to leave this task in the unsupervised hands of local school authorities, trained as most would be under the old laws and practices, with loyalties to the system of separate white and Negro schools. As we stressed then, '(I)t should go without saying that the vitality of these constitutional principles cannot be allowed to yield simply because of disagreement with them.' Id., at 300, 75 S.Ct., at 756. The problem of delays by local school authorities during the transition period was therefore to be the responsibility of courts, local courts so far as practc able, those courts to be guided by traditional equitable flexibility to shape remedies in order to adjust and reconcile public and private needs. These courts were charged in our Brown II opinion, id., at 300, 75 S.Ct., at 756, with a duty to:

'require that the defendants (local school authorities) make a prompt and reasonable start toward full compliance with our May 17, 1954, ruling. Once such a start has been made, the courts may find that additional time is necessary to carry out the ruling in an effective manner. The burden rests upon the defendants to establish that such time is necessary in the public interest and is consistent with good faith compliance at the earliest practicable date.'

The record shows that neither Montgomery County nor any other area in Alabama voluntarily took any effective steps to integrate the public schools for about 10 years after our Brown I opinion. In fact the record makes clear that that state government and its school officials attempted in every way possible to continue the dual system of racially segregated schools in defiance of our repeated unanimous holdings that such a system violated the United States Constitution.³

There the matter stood in Alabama in May 1964 when the present action was brought by Negro children and their parents, with participation by the United States as amicus curiae. Apparently up to that time Montgomery County, and indeed all other schools in the State, had operated, so far as actual racial integration was concerned, as though our Brown cases had never been decided. Obviously voluntary integration by the local school officials in Montgomery had not proved to be even partially successful. Consequently, if Negro children of school age were to receive their constitutional rights as we had declared them to exist, the coercive assistance of courts was imperatively called for. So, after preliminary procedural matters were disposed of, answers filed, and issues joined, a trial took place. On July 31, 1964, District Judge Johnson handed down an opinion and entered an order. 232 F.Supp. 705. The judge found that at the time:

'There is only one school district for Montgomery County, Alabama, with the County Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education of Montgomery County, Alabama, exercising complete control over the entire system. In this school system for the school year 1963—64, there were in attendance approximately 15,000 Negro children and approximately 25,000 white children. In this system the Montgomery County Board of Education owns and operates approximately 77 schools.

'From the evidence in this case, this Court further specifically finds that, through policy, custom and practice, the Montgomery County Board of Education, functioning at the present time through the named individual defendants, operates a dual school system based upon race and color; that is to say, that, through this policy, practice and custom, these officials operate one set of schools to be attended exclusively by Negro students and one set of schools to be attended exclusively by white students. The evidence further reflects that the teachers are assigned according to race; Negro teachers are assigned only to schools attended by Negro students and white teachers are assigned only to schools attended by white students.' 232 F.Supp., at 707.

Board on his findings, Judge Johnson ordered that integration of certain grades begin in September 1964, but in this first order did no require efforts to desegregate the faculty. The school board, acting under the State's school placement law, finally admitted eight Negro students out of the 29 who had sought transfers to white schools under the judge's July 31 order. The judge refused to order admission of the 21 Negro students whose transfer applications had been rejected by the school officials.

The 1964 initial order of Judge Johnson was followed by yearly proceedings, opinions, and orders by him.⁴ Hearings, preceding these additional orders, followed the filing each year under the judge's direction of a report of the school board's plans for proceeding with desegregation. These annual reports and orders, together with transcripts of the discussions at the hearings, seem to reveal a growing recognition on the part of the school board of its responsibility to achieve integration as rapidly as practicable. The record, however, also reveals that in some areas the board was not moving as rapidly as it could to fulfill this duty, and the record shows a constant effort by the judge to expedite the process of moving as rapidly as practical toward the goal of a wholly unitary system of schools, not divided by race as to either students or faculty. During these years of what turned out to be an exchange of ideas between judge and school board officials, the judge, from time to time, found it possible to compliment the board on its cooperation with him in trying to bring about a fully integrated school system. Some of these complimentary remarks are set out in the opinion of the Court of Appeals modifying the judge's decree. 400 F.2d, at 3, n. 3. On the other hand the board did not see eye to eye with Judge Johnson on the speed with which segregation should be wiped out 'root and branch' as we have held it must be done. Green v. County School Board, 391 U.S. 430, 438, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 1694, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968). The school board, having to face the 'complexities arising from the transition to a system of public education freed of racial discrimination,' Brown II, 349 U.S., at 299, 75 S.Ct., at 755, 99 L.Ed. 1083 was constantly sparring for time; the judge, upon whom was thrust the difficult task of insuring the achievement of complete integration at the earliest practicable date, was constantly urging that no unnecessary delay could be allowed in reaching complete compliance with our mandate that racially segregated public schools be made nothing but a matter of past history. In this context of clashing objectives it is not surprising that the judge's...