Wright v. Council of City of Emporia 8212 188
| Citation | 92 S.Ct. 2196,407 U.S. 451,33 L.Ed.2d 51 |
| Decision Date | 22 June 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 70,70 |
| Parties | Pecola Annette WRIGHT et al., Petitioners, v. COUNCIL OF the CITY OF EMPORIA et al. —188 |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Decided June 22, 1972. Syllabus In 1967, Emporia, Virginia, which is located in the center of Greensville County, changed from a 'town' to a politically independent 'city' authorized by state law to provide its own public school system. By a shared-cost agreement with the county Emporia in 1968 continued an arrangement, which antedated its change of status, to use the county public school system for education of its children. As a consequence of the present desegregation lawsuit initiated in 1965, the single school division was operating under a 'freedom of choice' plan approved by the District Court. Petitioners moved to modify that plan following this Court's decision in Green v. County School Board etc., 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716. The District Court, after a hearing, on June 25, 1969, ordered petitioners' 'pairing' plan, to take effect as of the start of the 1969—1970 school year. Two weeks after entry of the District Court's decree the city announced its plan to operate a separate school system and sought termination of the 1968 agreement. On August 1, 1969, petitioners filed a supplemental complaint seeking to enjoin the city council and school board (named as additional parties defendant) from withdrawing Emporia children from the county schools. Following hearings, the District Court found that the effect of Emporia's withdrawal would be a 'substantial increase in the proportion of whites in the schools attended by city residents, and a concomitant decrease in the county schools.' In addition to the disparity in racial percentages, the court found that the proportion of whites in county schools might drop as county-school whites shifted to private academies, while some whites might return to city schools from the academies they previously atended; that two formerly all-white schools (both better equipped and better located than the county schools) are in Emporia, while all the schools in the surrounding county were formerly all-Negro; and that Emporia, which long had the right to establish a separate school system, did not decide to do so until the court's order prevented the county from continuing its long-maintained segregated school system. The court concluded that Emporia's withdrawal would frustrate the June 25 decree, and enjoined respondents from
Page 452 pursuing their plan. Holding that the question whether new school district boundaries should be permitted in areas with a history of state-enforced racial segregation must be resolved in terms of the 'dominant purpose of (the) boundary realignment,' the Court of Appeals concluded that Emporia's primary purpose was 'benign' and not a mere 'cover-up' for racial discrimination, and reversed. Held: 1. In determining whether realignment of school districts by officials comports with the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment, courts will be guided, not by the motivation of the officials, but by the effect of their action. Pp. 461—462. 2. In the totality of the circumstances of this case, the District Court was justified in concluding that Emporia's establishment of a separate school system would impede the process of dismantling the segregated school system. Pp. 463—471. 4 Cir. 442 F.2d 570, reversed. Samuel W. Tucker, Richmond, Va., for petitioners. D. Dortch Warriner, Emporia, Va., for respondents. djQ Mr. Justice STEWART delivered the opinion of the Court. We granted certiorari in this case, as in No. 70—130, United States v. Scotland Neck City Board of Education,1 407 U.S. 484, 92 S.Ct. 2214, 33 L.Ed.2d 75, to consider the circumstances under
Page 453 which a federal court may enjoin state or local officials from carving out a new school district from an existing district that has not yet completed the process of dismantling a system of enforced racial segregation. We did not address ourselves to this rather narrow question in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 28 L.Ed.2d 554, and its companion cases decided last Term,2 but the problem has confronted other federal courts in one form or another on numerous occasions in recent years.3 Here, as in Scotland Neck, the Court of Appeals reversed a district court decision enjoining the creation of a new school district. 4 Cir., 442 F.2d 570. We conclude that the Court of Appeals erred in its interpretation of the legal principles applicable in cases such as these, and that the District Court's order was proper in the circumstances of this case. I The City of Emporia lies near the center of Greensville County, Virginia, a largely rural area located in the North Carolina border. Until 1967, Emporia was
Page 454 a 'town' under Virginia law, which meant that it was a part of the surrounding county for practically all purposes, including the purpose of providing public education for children residing in the county. In 1967, Emporia, apparently dissatisfied with the county's allocation of revenues from the newly enacted state sales tax, successfully sought designation as a 'city of the second class.'4 As such, it became politically independent from the surrounding county, and undertook a separate obligation under state law to provide free public schooling to children residing within its borders.5 To fulfill this responsibility, Emporia at first sought the county's agreement to continue operating the school system on virtually the same basis as before, with Emporia sharing in the administration as well as the financing of the schools.6 When the county officials refused to enter into an arrangement of this kind, Emporia agreed to a contract whereby the county would continue to educate students residing in the city in exchange for Emporia's payment of a specified share of the total cost of the system. Under this agreement, signed in April 1968, Emporia had a formal voice in the administration of the schools only through its par-
Page 455 ticipation in the selection of a superintendent. The city and county were designated as a single school 'division' by the State Board of Education,7 and this arrangement was still in effect at the time of the District Court's order challenged in this case. This lawsuit began in 1965, when a complaint was filed on behalf of Negro children seeking an end to state-enforced racial segregation in the Greensville County school system. Prior to 1965, the elementary and high schools located in Emporia served all white children in the county, while Negro children throughout the county were assigned to a single high school or one of four elementary schools, all but one of which were located outside the Emporia town boundary. In January 1966, the District Court approved a so-called 'freedom of choice' plan that had been adopted by the county in April of the previous year. Wright v. County School Board of Greensville County, D.C., 252 F.Supp. 378. No white students ever attended the Negro schools under this plan, and in the 1968—1969 school year only 98 of the county's 2,510 Negro students attended white schools. The school faculties remained completely segregated. Following our decision in Green v. County School Board, etc., 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716, holding that a freedom-of-choice plan was an unacceptable method of desegregation where it failed. 'to provide meaningful assurance of prompt and effective disestablishment of a dual system,' id., at 438, 88 S.Ct. at 1694, the petitioners filed a motion for further relief. The District Court ordered the county to demonstrate its compliance with the holding in Green, or to submit a plan designed to bring the schools into compliance. After various delays, during which the freedom-of-choice sy-
Page 456 stem remained in effect, the county submitted two alternative plans. The first would have preserved the existing system with slight modifications, and the second would have assigned students to schools on the basis of curricular choices or standardized test scores. The District Court promptly rejected the first of these proposals, and took the second under advisement. Meanwhile, the petitioners submitted their own proposal, under which all children enrolled in a particular grade level would be assigned to the same school, thus eliminating any possibility of racial bias in pupil assignments. Following an evidentiary hearing on June 23, 1969, the District Court rejected the county's alternative plan, finding that it would 'substitute . . . one segregated school system for another segregated school system.' By an order dated June 25, the court ordered the county to implement the plan submitted by the petitioners, referred to by the parties as the 'pairing' plan, as of the start of the 1969—1970 school year.8 Two weeks after the District Court entered its decree, the Emporia City Council sent a letter to the county Board of Supervisors announcing the city's intention to operate a separate school system beginning in September. The letter stated that an 'in-depth study and analysis of the directed school arrangement reflects a totally unacceptable situation to the Citizens and City Council of the City of Emporia.' It asked that the 1968 city-county agreement be terminated by mutual consent, and that title to school property located within Emporia be transferred to the city. The letter further
Page 457 advised that children residing in the county would be permitted to enroll in the city schools on a tuition basis.9 At no time during this period did the city officials meet with the county council or school board to discuss the implementation of the pairing decree, nor did they inform the District Court of their intentions with respect to the separate...
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