Penick v. Columbus Bd. of Ed., s. 77-3365

• Citation: 583 F.2d 787
• Decision Date: 14 July 1978
• Docket Number: 77-3366,77-3491,Nos. 77-3365,77-3490,s. 77-3365
• Parties: Gary L. PENICK et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COLUMBUS BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., and The Ohio State Board of Education et al., Defendants-Appellants. & 77-3553.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Page 787

583 F.2d 787

Gary L. PENICK et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COLUMBUS BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., and The Ohio State Board of Education et al., Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 77-3365, 77-3366, 77-3490, 77-3491 & 77-3553.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued Feb. 15, 1978.

Decided July 14, 1978.

Allan E. Roth, Samuel H. Porter, Curtis A. Loveland, William J. Kelly, Jr., Porter, Stanley, Platt & Arthur, Columbus, Ohio, for defendants-appellants in Nos. 77-3365, 77-3490.

Louis R. Lucas, Ratner, Sugarmon & Lucas, Memphis, Tenn., Thomas I. Atkins, Boston, Mass., Richard M. Stein, Bell, White, Stein, Dachner & Ross, Columbus, Ohio, Leo P. Ross, Columbus, Ohio, Nathaniel R. Jones, Gen. Counsel, NAACP, New York City, Mark O'Neill, Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley, Cleveland, Ohio, Thomas P. Michael, Alexander, Ebinger, Holschuh, Fisher & McAlister, Columbus, Ohio, William J. Brown, Atty. Gen. of Ohio, Roy Martin, Asst. Atty. Gen., Columbus, Ohio, Edward J. Cox, Leonard J. Schwartz, Robert K. Hammersmith, Columbus, Ohio, Paul R. Dimond, O'Brien, Moran & Dimond, Ann Arbor, Mich., for plaintiffs-appellees in No. 77-3365.

Mark O'Neill, Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley, Cleveland, Ohio, Richard S. Walinski, Chief Counsel, Office of Atty. Gen., Columbus, Ohio, for defendants-appellants in No. 77-3366.

Richard M. Stein, Bell, White, Stein, Dachner & Ross, Leo P. Ross, Columbus, Ohio, Samuel H. Porter, Allan E. Roth, Curtis A. Loveland, William J. Kelly, Jr., Porter, Stanley, Platt & Arthur, Columbus, Ohio, Louis R. Lucas, Memphis, Tenn., Nathaniel R. Jones, New York City, Thomas I. Atkins, Boston, Mass., Thomas P. Michael, Alexander, Ebinger, Holschuh, Fisher & McAlister, Columbus, Ohio, William J. Brown, Atty. Gen. of Ohio, James W. McCarthy, Terry L. Tataru, Asst. Attys. Gen., Columbus, Ohio, Edward J. Cox, Columbus, Ohio, Robert K. Hammersmith, Columbus, Ohio, Paul R. Dimond, O'Brien, Moran & Dimond, Ann Arbor, Mich., for plaintiffs-appellees in No. 77-3366.

Louis R. Lucas, Ratner, Sugarmon & Lucas, Memphis, Tenn., Thomas I. Atkins, Boston, Mass., Richard M. Stein, Bell, White, Stein, Dachner & Ross, Columbus, Ohio, Leo P. Ross, Columbus, Ohio, Nathaniel R. Jones, Gen. Counsel, NAACP, New York City, Mark O'Neill, Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley, Cleveland, Ohio, Thomas P. Michael, Alexander, Ebinger, Holschuh, Fisher & McAlister, Columbus, Ohio, Robert K. Hammersmith, Columbus, Ohio, Edward J. Cox, Columbus, Ohio, William J. Brown, Atty. Gen. of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Roy Martin, James W. McCarthy and Terry L Mark O'Neill, James L. McCrystal, Jr., Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley, Cleveland, Ohio, Thomas P. Michael, Alexander, Ebinger, Holschuh, Fisher & McAlister, Leonard J. Schwartz, Schwartz and Fishman, Leo P. Ross, Columbus, Ohio, Nathaniel R. Jones, Gen. Counsel, NAACP, New York City, Robert K. Hammersmith, Edward J. Cox, Columbus, Ohio, William J. Brown, Atty. Gen. of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Richard S. Walinski, Chief Counsel, Roy Martin, James W. McCarthy and Terry Tataru, Asst. Attys. Gen., Allan E. Roth, Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, Columbus, Ohio, Samuel H. Porter, Curtis A. Loveland, William J. Kelly, Jr., Paul R. Dimond, O'Brien, Moran & Dimond, Ann Arbor, Mich., for defendants-appellants in No. 77-3491.

Tataru, Asst. Attys. Gen., Paul R. Dimond, O'Brien, Moran & Dimond, Ann Arbor, Mich., for plaintiffs-appellees in No. 77-3490.

Louis R. Lucas, Ratner, Sugarmon & Lucas, Memphis, Tenn., Thomas I. Atkins, Boston, Mass., Richard M. Stein, Bell, White, Stein, Dachner & Ross, Columbus, Ohio, for plaintiffs-appellees in No. 77-3491.

Samuel H. Porter, Curtis A. Loveland, Allan E. Roth, William J. Kelly, Jr., Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, Leonard J. Schwartz, Andrew M. Fishman, Schwartz & Fishman, Leo P. Ross, Columbus, Ohio, Nathaniel R. Jones, Gen. Counsel, NAACP, New York City, Robert K. Hammersmith, Edward J. Cox, Columbus, Ohio, Paul R. Dimond, O'Brien, Moran & Dimond, Ann Arbor, Mich., Mark O'Neill, James L. McCrystal, Jr., Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley, Cleveland, Ohio, Thomas P. Michael, Alexander, Ebinger, Holschuh, Fisher & McAlister, Columbus, Ohio, William J. Brown, Atty. Gen. of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, for defendants-appellants in No. 77-3553.

Louis R. Lucas, Ratner, Sugarmon & Lucas, Memphis, Tenn., Thomas I. Atkins, Boston, Mass., Richard M. Stein, Bell, White, Stein, Dachner & Ross, Columbus, Ohio, for plaintiffs-appellees in No. 77-3553.

Before EDWARDS, LIVELY and MERRITT, Circuit Judges.

EDWARDS, Circuit Judge.

This is a case wherein the complaints charge racial discrimination in violation of the United States Constitution in the city school system of Columbus, the capital city of Ohio. After a 36-day trial, the District Judge found intentional de jure segregation and a dual school system separated by race in Columbus in 1954 when Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954), was decided. He found that the Columbus School Board had failed in its duty to desegregate the school system and, on the contrary, had intentionally continued segregation in the two decades following Brown. He held that the State Board of Education had the duty to order desegregation of the Columbus system, but had not done so, and, on the contrary, had continued financial support to the segregated system in violation of both Ohio law and the federal constitution. He ordered systemwide desegregation and certified the critical questions for appellate review.

After review of this 6,600 page record, we accept the District Judge's findings of fact as not clearly erroneous and affirm his judgments of law. As to the State Board only, we remand for further consideration.

I BACKGROUND

It was there from the beginning the notion of equality before the law. The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence of the United States runs, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

There, from the very beginning also, was the notion of a written constitution as fundamental law. In 1787 ¹ our people committed At the Philadelphia convention also, our ancestors wrote a considerable portion of the concept of equality into the Constitution of the new country. In Article IV, section 2, clause 1: "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." Just four years later the people of the new country, through Congress and the state conventions, enacted Amendment V of the Bill of Rights, which contained another fundamental aspect of the general concept: "No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; . . ."

                the new nation to constitutional government to a greater degree than any other in the world.  In adopting the Constitution of the United States, our ancestors made it the supreme law of the land 2 controlling the decisions of the President of the United States, the United States Congress, and the United States courts, as well as the governors, legislatures and courts of the several states.  The United States Supreme Court has the duty to interpret the United States Constitution.  3 All judges in the land, including, of course, this court, are bound to follow its interpretation.  4
                

Although from the beginning the word "person" in the United States Constitution appeared to include slaves, the Constitution also contained specific recognition of the existence of slavery in a number of states. See U.S.Const. art. IV, § 2, cl. 3. When the great and bitter conflict over slavery developed, it found the courts holding that the constitutional principles cited above applied to the federal government, but not to the states which chose to sanction slavery. See Barron v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 32 U.S. (7 Pet.) 243, 8 L.Ed. 672 (1833); Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393, 15 L.Ed. 691 (1857).

The Civil War, in which 550,000 men died, was fought in large measure over the slavery question. At its end Congress and the required number of states adopted the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. Two years later Congress had been made intensely aware that many Southern states were passing laws to continue the subjugation of former slaves by statutes aimed directly at them. It was then that the Fourteenth Amendment was born. Ratified in 1868, it read in applicable part:

"SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the Equal protection of the laws."

U.S.Const. amend. XIV, § 1 (emphasis added).

The language of the last sentence of Section 1 was drafted by one of Ohio's most famous Representatives, Congressman John Bingham. It was designed by its author to prevent the states from adopting state laws which deprived former black slaves and their progeny of rights equal to those of white citizens. ⁵ Bingham applied the principles The constitutional intention of 1868, as Bingham and his associates understood it (much as the United States Supreme Court does today), was not followed for many years. In the post-Reconstruction era black citizens in the Southern states (frequently in the Northern also) were denied access equal to that of whites to such fundamentals of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as votes, public accommodations, housing, jobs and schools. In 1896 this post-slavery system of segregation by race was validated by the United States Supreme...