Brown v. Board of Educ. of City of Bessemer, 86-7579
| Decision Date | 02 February 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-7579,86-7579 |
| Citation | 808 F.2d 1445 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
| Parties | 36 Ed. Law Rep. 1151 Doris Elaine BROWN and Delores Eloise Brown by Sam Brown, their father and next friend; Frazier McKinley Glover, Plaintiffs-Appellees, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, Appellee, Tony S. Cooper, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, Plaintiff. v. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF BESSEMER; J. Howard McEniry, President of City Board of Education of Bessemer, Ala.; Dr. James O. Knuckles, Superintendent of Education of the City of Bessemer, Ala.; and Joe Terry, Charles A. Long, Jr., Rob Millsap, Jack Wischmyer, Edna Morton, and Richard Patterson, as members of the City of Bessemer Board of Education and their successors in office, Defendants, Jefferson County Board of Education and members Mrs. Mary Buckelew, Mr. Jim Hicks, Mrs. Robert W. Gwin, Jr., Bill Mewbourne, Dr. Kevin Walsh, Defendants-Appellants. |
Carl E. Johnson, Bishop, Colvin & Johnson, Frank Nelson Building, Birmingham, Ala., for defendants-appellants.
Joe L. Tucker, Jr., Holliman & Tucker, Bessemer, Ala., for plaintiffs-appellees.
William R. Yeomans, U.S. Dept. of Justice/Civil Rights Div., Appellate Section, Washington, D.C., for U.S.A.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Before RONEY, Chief Judge, EDMONDSON, Circuit Judge, TUTTLE, Senior Circuit Judge.
The Board of Education of Jefferson County, Alabama appeals an order by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama granting extraordinary relief to the Board of Education of the City of Bessemer, Alabama. Because we find that the district court acted within its authority, we affirm.
The City of Bessemer, Alabama ("Bessemer") lies within the limits of Jefferson County, Alabama. For several decades, Bessemer has operated a school system separate from that operated by the county. Since 1971, each system has operated under a continuing order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to desegregate and to provide a unitary system of education to its own students. See, Brown v. Board of Education of the City of Bessemer, et al., No. CV-65-HM-0366-S (N.D.Ala. August 30, 1971), rev'd in part, 464 F.2d 382 (5th Cir.1972); Stout v. Jefferson County Board of Education, No. CV-65-P-0396-S (N.D.Ala. September 8, 1971). Neither system has yet been declared unitary. It is in connection with the district court's supervision of the Bessemer school system that this appeal arises.
On July 3, 1985, the Bessemer Board of Education filed a "Petition for Approval of Unitary Plan." The goal of the plan was to consolidate as many all-black schools as possible with racially desegregated schools. The district court "preliminarily approved" the plan on July 12, 1985.
The consolidation outlined by the Bessemer plan would require extensive construction at the desegregated schools to accommodate the students from the other schools. Because a key provision of the plan involved closing the all-black Abrams High School and transferring students from that school to the desegregated Lanier High School, Bessemer was eligible for a consolidation grant from the State of Alabama in the amount of approximately $800,000.00. Pursuant to the conditions of the grant, the Bessemer Board of Education committed itself to raise a matching amount, leaving 1.6 million dollars available to implement the unitary education plan.
In early 1986, annexation elections were held concerning Bessemer pursuant to a consent decree issued in another, otherwise unrelated lawsuit Tolbert, et al. v. City of Bessemer, et al., Nos. CV-83-P-3050-S, CV-84-P-0893-S. Plaintiffs in Tolbert charged that Bessemer had for many years pursued a policy of actively seeking to annex geographic areas populated by white persons while refusing to annex areas populated by black persons. The parties to the suit eventually entered into an agreement to hold annexation elections in three areas, designated Parcels A, B, and C, adjacent to the city limits of Bessemer. In Alabama, city school districts ordinarily expand with annexations to the pertinent city. Ala.Code secs. 16-8-20; 16-11-9 (1977). In February and March, 1986, elections were After the annexation elections, the Jefferson County Board of Education notified the Bessemer Board of Education that Jefferson County would no longer educate the students residing within the annexed areas. Concerned that the influx of 900 students into the Bessemer school system would affect the court-approved unitary plan, Bessemer on April 24, 1986 filed motions to add the Jefferson County Board of Education and its individual members as parties defendants in the case of Brown v. Bd. of Education, supra. Bessemer also moved for extraordinary relief against the added defendants, requesting an order instructing Jefferson County to continue to educate the students in the annexed parcel. The motions were referred to a United States Magistrate for an evidentiary hearing and recommendation.
held in Parcels A and B, respectively. As a result of those elections, approximately 900 children became eligible to attend Bessemer city schools--200 from Parcel A and 700 from Parcel B.
At the hearing, Bessemer presented testimony that it would be able to accommodate the 200 additional students from Parcel A without undue strain to its facilities. The influx of the 700 students from Parcel B, however, would prevent Bessemer from operating a unitary system under the plan approved by the court. In the first place, the current racial composition of Bessemer schools is 73% black students and 27% white students. With the inclusion of the students from Parcel B, 94% of whom are black, the percentages would shift to 79% black students and 21% white students. In Jefferson County, 83% of the current students are white and 17% are black. With the transfer of the students from Parcel B, the percentage of black students would be reduced to 16%, but in some individual schools the population of black students would drop from 28% to 22%.
Even more significant than the statistics is the practical impact that the students from Parcel B would have on Bessemer's attempts to desegregate its school system. According to the record, Bessemer would not be able to accommodate those students without keeping Abrams High School open, contrary to the court-approved desegregation plan. Moreover, if Abrams continued to operate, Bessemer would lose its consolidation grant from the State of Alabama. Without that grant, and with the added expense of renovating and maintaining Abrams High School, Bessemer would be unable to construct additional facilities at its desegregated schools and its progress toward a unitary system would be severely impeded, if not completely stalled. If, however, Jefferson County retained the students from Parcel B, Bessemer would be able to close Abrams High School and, with construction funded by the consolidation grant, would be able to accommodate the students from Parcel B in desegregated schools within two to four years.
The magistrate entered an extensive order recommending that Bessemer be required to educate all of the students from the annexed parcels. The appellees filed objections to the magistrate's order, and the district court subsequently accepted some of the magistrate's recommendations and rejected others. The district court eventually directed Bessemer to accept the responsibility for educating the students residing in Parcel A but required Jefferson County to retain all responsibility for those students residing in Parcel B. Jefferson County appeals that order.
Jefferson County argues that the district court erred in granting interdistrict relief because there was no evidence of an interdistrict violation by Jefferson requiring an interdistrict remedy. See Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974). We do not reach that question because the relief...
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