Daniel v. Barresi
| Decision Date | 20 April 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 420,420 |
| Citation | 402 U.S. 39,28 L.Ed.2d 582,91 S.Ct. 1287 |
| Parties | Charles McDANIEL, Superintendent of Schools, et al., Petitioners, v. Joseph BARRESI, Jr., et al., |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
The Board of Education of Clarke County, Ga. (with a two-to-one white-Negro elementary school system ratio), devised a student assignment plan for desegregating elementary schools which establishes geographic zones drawn to promote desegregation and also provides that pupils in heavily concentrated Negro 'pockets' walk or go by bus to schools in other attendance zones. The resulting Negro elementary enrollment ranges from 20% to 40% in all but two schools, where it is 50%. Respondent parents sued to enjoin the plan's operation. The state trial court denied an injunction. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed, holding that the plan violated (1) equal protection because it '(treated) students differently because of their race,' and (2) the Civil Rights Act of 1964, because Title IV prohibits a school board from requiring busing to achieve a racial balance. Held:
1. In compliance with its duty to convert to a unitary system, the school board properly took race into account in fixing the attendance lines. P. 41.
2. Title IV, a direction to federal officials, does not restrict state officials in assigning students within their systems. Pp. 41—42.
Eugene A. Epting, Athens, for petitioners.
E. Freeman Leverett, Elberton, for respondents.
We granted certiorari in this case to review a state court order enjoining the operation of a school desegregation plan. The action was brought in the Superior Court of Clarke County, Georgia, by parents of children attending public elementary schools in that county. Named as defendants were the Superintendent of Education and members of the Clarke County Board of Education. The trial court denied respondents' request for an injunction, but on appeal the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed, Barresi v. Browne, 226 Ga. 456, 175 S.E.2d 649 (1970). This Court then granted certiorari, 400 U.S. 804, 91 S.Ct. 10, 27 L.Ed.2d 35 (1970).
Beginning in 1963, the Clarke County Board of Education began a voluntary program to desegregate its public schools. The student-assignment plan presently at issue, involving only elementary schools, has been in effect since the start of the 1969 academic year. The plan, adopted by the Board of Education and approved by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1 relies primarily upon geographic attendance zones drawn to achieve greater racial balance. Additionally, the pupils in five heavily Negro 'pockets' either walk or are transported by bus to schools located in other attendance zones.2 As a consequence the Negro enrollment of each elementary school in the system varies generally between 20% and 40%, although two schools have a 50% Negro enrollment. The white-Negro ratio of elementary pupils in the system is approximately two to one.
Respondents contend in this action that the board's desegregation plan violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld both contentions, concluding first that the plan violated the Equal Protection Clause 'by treating students differently because of their race.' The court concluded also that Title IV prohibited the board from 'requiring the transportation of pupils or students from one school to another * * * in order to achieve such racial balance * * *.' We reject these contentions.
The Clarke County Board of Education, as part of its affirmative duty to disestablish the dual school system, properly took into account the race of its elementary school children in drawing attendance lines. To have done otherwise would have severely hampered the board's ability to deal...
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The Supreme Court of the United States, 1970-1971
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