Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia, 8757.
| Decision Date | 10 May 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 8757.,8757. |
| Citation | 317 F.2d 429 |
| Parties | Minerva BRADLEY, I. A. Jackson, Jr., Rosa Lee Quarles, John Edward Johnson, Elihu C. Myers and Elizabeth S. Myers, Appellants, v. The SCHOOL BOARD of the CITY OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, H. I. Willet, Division Superintendent of Schools of the City of Richmond, Virginia, and E. J. Oglesby, Alfred L. Wingo and E. T. Justis, individually and constituting the Pupil Placement Board of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Henry L. Marsh, III, Richmond, Va. (S. W. Tucker, Richmond, Va., on brief) for appellants.
Henry T. Wickham, Sp. Counsel, City of Richmond (J. Elliott Drinard, City Atty., Richmond, Va., and Tucker, Mays, Moore & Reed, Richmond, Va., on brief) for appellees, The School Board of the City of Richmond, Virginia, and H. I. Willet, Division Superintendent of Schools.
Before BOREMAN, BRYAN and J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judges.
This is a school case involving alleged racially discriminatory practices and the maintenance of public schools on a racially segregated basis in the City of Richmond, Virginia. In September 1961 eleven Negro pupils, their parents and guardians instituted this action to require the defendants to transfer the pupils from Negro public schools to white public schools.1 The plaintiffs also pray, on behalf of all persons similarly situated, that the defendants be enjoined from operating racially segregated schools and be required to submit to the District Court a plan of desegregation. The District Court ordered that the individual infant plaintiffs be transferred to the schools for which they had applied. This appeal is based upon the refusal of the court to grant further injunctive relief.
Defendant, Virginia Pupil Placement Board, answered the complaint, admitting that plaintiffs had complied with its regulations pertaining to applications for transfer but denying discrimination and other allegations of the complaint. The defendants, School Board of the City of Richmond and the Richmond Superintendent of Schools, answered and moved to dismiss on the ground that sole responsibility for the placement of pupils rested with the Virginia Pupil Placement Board pursuant to the Pupil Placement Act of Virginia, Sections 22-232.1 through 232.17, Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended.2
The defendants interpreted the bill of complaint as attacking the constitutionality of the Pupil Placement Act and the motions to dismiss were grounded also on the theory that constitutionality should first be determined by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia or the case should be heard by a District Court of three judges. The court below correctly denied the motions to dismiss after determining that the constitutionality of the Act had not been challenged by plaintiffs.
The record discloses that the City of Richmond is divided into a number of geographically defined attendance areas for both white and Negro schools. These areas were established by the School Board prior to 1954 and have not been materially changed since that time. It is admitted that several attendance areas for white and Negro schools overlap. The State Pupil Placement Board enrolls and transfers all pupils and neither the Richmond School Board nor the city Superintendent of Schools makes recommendations to the Pupil Placement Board.
During the 1961-62 school term, 37 Negro pupils were assigned to "white" schools. For the 1962-63 school term, 90 additional Negro pupils had been so assigned. At the start of the 1962-63 school term, all of the "white" high schools had Negro pupils in attendance. Negro pupils also attend several of the "white" junior high schools and elementary schools.
Certain additional facts are clearly established by the record. The City School Board maintains five high schools, three for whites and two for Negroes; five junior high schools for whites and four for Negroes; eighteen elementary schools for whites and twenty-two for Negroes. As of April 30, 1962, there were 40,263 pupils in Richmond public schools, 23,177 Negroes, 17,002 whites and 84 non-whites of a race other than Negro but considered white for the purpose of assignment in the Richmond public school system. Only 37 Negroes were then attending schools which white children attended, 30 of those being in the "white" Chandler Junior High School. Three of the remaining seven were in attendance at the "white" John Marshall High School, one attended the "white" Westhampton Junior High School and three handicapped children attended the Richmond Cerebral Palsy Center. With the possible exception of the three last mentioned, these children had sought transfers from Negro schools and all but one were able to satisfy the residential and academic criteria which the Pupil Placement Board applies in case of transfers but not in case of initial enrollment. The remaining child had been admitted by court order in earlier litigation.3
The 1961-62 Directory of the Richmond, Virginia, Public Schools shows "White Schools" in one division and "Negro Schools" in the other. The "White Schools" are staffed entirely with faculties and officials of the Caucasian race. The schools listed as "Negro Schools" are staffed entirely with faculties and officials of the Negro race.
Thus it is clear, as found by the District Court, that Richmond has dual school attendance areas; that the City is divided into areas for white schools and is again divided into areas for Negro schools; that in many instances the area for the white school and for the Negro school is the same and the areas overlap. Initial pupil enrollments are made pursuant to the dual attendance lines. Once enrolled, the pupils are routinely reassigned to the same school until graduation from that school. Upon graduation, the pupils are assigned in the manner found by the District Court to be as follows:
As of April 30, 1962, a rather serious problem of overcrowding existed in the Richmond Negro public schools. Of the 28 Negro schools 22 were overcrowded beyond normal capacity by 1775 pupils and the combined enrollments of 23 of the 26 white schools were 2445 less than the normal capacity of those schools. For the current 1962-63 school term, the applications for transfers from Negro to white schools of only 127 Negro pupils had been granted.
Four of the infant plaintiffs, who had completed elementary school, sought admission to the white Chandler Junior High School. After comparing test scores of these pupils with test scores of other pupils, the Pupil Placement Board denied the applications on the ground of lack of academic qualifications. These plaintiffs contended that pupils from white elementary schools in the same attendance area are routinely placed in Chandler Junior High and their scholastic attainments or qualifications are not scrutinized by the Pupil Placement Board. The District Court concluded that academic criteria were applied to Negro pupils seeking transfer based on promotion, which criteria were not applied to the white pupils promoted from elementary schools to junior high schools. This, said the court, is discriminatory and is a valid criticism of the procedure inherent in the system of "feeder schools". The court further stated:
Another of the Negro plaintiffs, who was promoted from a Negro junior high school, sought admission to the "white" John Marshall High School. His application had been denied because he lived thirteen blocks from the John Marshall High School and only five blocks from a Negro high school. However, it was pointed out in the court below that this plaintiff lives in the attendance area of the John Marshall High School and, had he been a white student, he would have been routinely assigned there without considering the distance of his residence from that school or from another high school. The District Court said:
The remaining five plaintiffs sought transfers from the Graves Junior High School (Negro) to the "white" Chandler Junior High School. They were denied transfer by the Pupil Placement Board because of lack of academic qualifications. The evidence showed that the same standards for determining transfers, upon application, from one junior high school to another junior high school were applied by the Board indiscriminately to both white and Negro pupils. The District Court stated:
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond 8212 1322
...Vacated and remanded. Mr. Justice MARSHALL and Mr. Justice POWELL took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. 1 See 317 F.2d 429 (CA4 1963). Before trial, one pupil-plaintiff was admitted to the school of his choice, and the court ordered admission of the remaining 10. The D......
-
Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia
...plan was adopted. At first it was not nondiscriminately administered and judicial relief was required. See, Bradley v. School Bd. of Richmond, 317 F.2d 429 (4 Cir. 1963); Bradley v. School Board of Richmond, Virginia, 345 F.2d 310 (4 Cir. 1965), vacated and remanded 382 U.S. 103 (1965). In ......
-
Blocker v. Board of Education of Manhasset, New York
...v. School Board, 203 F. Supp. 701, 704-705 (W.D.Va.), rev'd on other grounds, 308 F.2d 918 (4th Cir. 1962). 11 See Bradley v. School Board, 317 F.2d 429, 438 (4th Cir. 1963); Jeffers v. Whitley, 309 F.2d 621, 629 (4th Cir. 1962); Boson v. Rippy, 285 F.2d 43, 45-46 (5th Cir. 1960); Kelley v.......
-
Downs v. Board of Education of Kansas City, 7536.
...of the same scholastic aptitude would not be subjected, does not comport with constitutional principles. Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia, 4 Cir., 317 F.2d 429. The neighborhood school system and other school systems, by which admission to the school is determined upon ......