Perkins v. City of West Helena, Ark., 81-1516

• Decision Date: 13 April 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-1516,81-1516
• Citation: 675 F.2d 201
• Parties: Reverend P. L. PERKINS, Phillips County Concerned Citizens, Sam Bennett, John Hamilton, Mrs. Lillie Mae Stevens, Wilson Rodgers, Reverend Julius McGruder, Welton Davis, Reverend C. W. Gilcreast and Orta Bush, Appellants, v. CITY OF WEST HELENA, ARKANSAS, Mayor Jesse Porter; City Councilmen Bob Teeter, Dick Cunningham, Tommie Dial, Charles Miles and Dwight Galloway, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 201

675 F.2d 201

Reverend P. L. PERKINS, Phillips County Concerned Citizens,

Sam Bennett, John Hamilton, Mrs. Lillie Mae Stevens, Wilson

Rodgers, Reverend Julius McGruder, Welton Davis, Reverend C.

W. Gilcreast and Orta Bush, Appellants, v. CITY OF WEST HELENA, ARKANSAS, Mayor Jesse Porter; City

Councilmen Bob Teeter, Dick Cunningham, Tommie

Dial, Charles Miles and Dwight Galloway,

Appellees.

No. 81-1516.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 12, 1981.

Decided April 13, 1982.

William L. Robinson, Norman J. Chachkin, Lezli Baskerville, Lawyers' Committee for Civ. Rights Under Law, Washington, D. C., for amicus curiae.

Kaplan, Hollingsworth, Brewer & Bilheimer, P. A. Hollingsworth, Janet L. Pulliam, Little Rock, Ark., for appellants.

Ralph C. Murray, City Atty., West Helena, Ark., and Byron Freeland, Mitchell, Williams & Selig, Little Rock, Ark., for appellees.

Steve Clark, Atty. Gen. by R. B. Friedlander, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, Ark., for State of Ark.

Before HEANEY and McMILLIAN, Circuit Judges, and REGAN, ^* Senior District Judge.

HEANEY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs appeal from a decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, 514 F.Supp. 770, which held that the at-large system of electing aldermen in the City of West Helena, Arkansas, was neither adopted or maintained for the purpose of denying black citizens their rights under the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, or Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973. We affirm the district court's finding that at-large voting was not adopted for an unconstitutional or illegal purpose. We reverse, however, its finding that at-large voting was not maintained for an unlawful purpose. We hold that the direct and circumstantial evidence in this case establishes that the defendants have retained West Helena's at-large electoral system to intentionally deprive black voters of their rights in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We remand to the district court with directions to devise a remedy that will fully protect the voting rights of black voters in West Helena.

I. FACTS.

The plaintiffs are citizens of the City of West Helena, Arkansas. ¹ The population of West Helena is approximately forty percent black and sixty percent white. Since 1920, the city has been governed by a council consisting of eight aldermen. It is divided into four wards for the purpose of electing aldermen. The ward lines have not changed since 1920. The white residents and black residents generally live separate and apart from each other. Wards 2 and 3 are entirely white. Parts of Wards 1 and 4 are also white. The other parts of Wards 1 and 4 are "black wards" separated from the white areas by a railroad track. There is a large disparity in the population of the wards. Wards 2 and 3 contain only twenty-seven percent of the city's population, while seventy-three percent of the population reside in Wards 1 and 4.

Candidates for aldermanic positions must reside in the ward from which they seek to be elected. There are two positions in each ward, and each candidate is required to specify the "seat" or "post" for which he or she is running within the ward of his or her residence. All candidates then run for election on an at-large basis. The entire electorate is required to vote for two candidates from each ward. Single-shot voting is effectively prohibited under Arkansas law. Candidates, however, must only receive a plurality of votes cast to win an election, and there are no runoffs. Historically, West Helena's municipal elections have been characterized by "bloc voting" polarized along racial lines.

Under this electoral scheme, no black has ever been elected in a "head-to-head" contest against a white candidate. Only three black candidates have ever been elected to the city council, and in each case, the black candidate ran against at least two white candidates. Moreover, when these black incumbents stood for reelection, each was opposed by only one white candidate; and, in each instance, the black was defeated.

The record establishes that West Helena's municipal government has been unresponsive to the needs of black citizens, and blacks have been denied equal access to public housing, municipal boards and commissions, municipal employment and city services. Since at least 1977, blacks have petitioned the council members to be more responsive to the black community and to change the electoral system from at-large elections to elections by ward. Few changes have been made in response to black demands and the requests for ward elections have been rejected.

On October 20, 1978, a group of black "concerned citizens" instituted this action to enjoin the continued use of at-large elections for city aldermen in West Helena. They alleged that the at-large election scheme was adopted and has been maintained for the purpose of diluting black voting strength ² in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. They additionally contended that the population in the four city wards is not substantially equal as required by Arkansas law, and they sought to have the district court exercise its pendent jurisdiction to reapportion the wards.

After trial, the district court held that the plaintiffs failed to establish their Fourteenth Amendment claim because they did not prove that the defendants created or maintained West Helena's at-large electoral system for a discriminatory purpose. It also held that the plaintiffs did not have a valid Fifteenth Amendment or Voting Rights Act claim because blacks were free to register and to vote in West Helena. Finally, the district court declined to exercise its pendent jurisdiction to address the issue of disparate ward populations. The plaintiffs appeal from these decisions.

II. DISCUSSION.

A. Introduction.

The Constitution of the United States protects the right of all qualified citizens to vote and to have their votes counted. Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 554, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 1377, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964). ³ Indeed, the Supreme Court has recognized that "(t)he right to vote freely for the candidate of one's choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government." Reynolds v. Sims, supra, 377 U.S. at 554, 84 S.Ct. at 1377. Moreover, because "the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized." Id. at 560, 84 S.Ct. at 1380.

At-large voting is not per se unconstitutional. E.g., City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 57, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 1494, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980); White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 765, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 2339, 37 L.Ed.2d 314 (1973). No group, even if racially identifiable, has a right to elect representatives proportionate to its voting power in the community. City of Mobile v. Bolden, supra, 446 U.S. at 79, 100 S.Ct. at 1506; Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 149, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 1872, 29 L.Ed.2d 363 (1971). Nonetheless, "the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen's vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise." Reynolds v. Sims, supra, 377 U.S. at 555, 84 S.Ct. at 1378. Thus, a vote dilution claim is a cognizable constitutional cause of action under the appropriate circumstances. City of Mobile v. Bolden, supra, 446 U.S. at 65-66, 100 S.Ct. at 1498-99; White v. Regester, supra, 412 U.S. at 765-766, 93 S.Ct. at 2339; Leadership Roundtable v. City of Little Rock, 661 F.2d 701 (8th Cir. 1981); Lodge v. Buxton, 639 F.2d 1358, 1363 (5th Cir. 1981).

B. City of Mobile v. Bolden.

To determine whether the plaintiffs have established their vote dilution claim, we begin with the Supreme Court's decision in City of Mobile v. Bolden, supra, 446 U.S. 55, 58, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 1495, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980). In Bolden, the Supreme Court reversed a decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which had held that Mobile's at-large system of electing city council members discriminated against black voters in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Id. at 67, 100 S.Ct. at 1499. The standards established in Bolden, however, are difficult to discern because no view of the justices commanded a clear majority, and six separate opinions were published.

Justice Stewart, writing for the plurality, ⁴ found that the Fifteenth Amendment is violated only by purposeful discrimination that directly interferes with the rights of blacks to register and to vote. He concluded that "(h)aving found that Negroes in Mobile, 'register and vote without hindrance,' the District Court and Court of Appeals were in error in believing that the appellants invaded the protection of (the Fifteenth) Amendment in the present case." Id. at 65, 100 S.Ct. at 1498.

With respect to the Fourteenth Amendment, Justice Stewart wrote that to establish a claim of unconstitutional vote dilution, "it is not enough to show that the group allegedly discriminated against has not elected representatives in proportion to its numbers. A plaintiff must prove that the disputed plan was 'conceived or operated as (a) purposeful device to further racial * * * discrimination.' " Id. at 66, 100 S.Ct. 1499 (footnote omitted). The plurality then found that the evidence of purposeful discrimination was insufficient to prove a Fourteenth Amendment violation. Id. at 72-74, 100 S.Ct. at 1503.

Justice Stevens concurred in the judgment. He agreed with the plurality that no constitutional violation had been established, but he relied on an alternative test. Id. at 90-94, 100 S.Ct. at 1512-14 (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment). He stated that "a...