Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District

• Decision Date: 02 August 1972
• Docket Number: No. 71-2397.,71-2397.
• Citation: 467 F.2d 142
• Parties: Jose CISNEROS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. CORPUS CHRISTI INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

467 F.2d 142 (1972)

Jose CISNEROS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. CORPUS CHRISTI INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 71-2397.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

August 2, 1972.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Chris Dixie, Houston, Tex., James DeAnda, Corpus Christi, Tex., James P. Wolf, Eric H. Nelson, Houston, Tex., for Jose Cisneros and others.

Brian Landsberg, Atty., Civil Rights Div., John N. Mitchell, U. S. Atty. Gen., David L. Norman, Asst. Atty. Gen., Anthony J. P. Farris, U. S. Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for the United States.

Jack Greenberg, Charles Stephen Ralston, James M. Nabrit, III, Norman Chachkin, New York City, for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., amicus curiae.

Mario Obledo, San Francisco, Cal., Edward Idar, Jr., San Antonio, Tex., for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., amicus curiae.

Before JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge, and WISDOM, GEWIN, BELL, THORNBERRY, COLEMAN, GOLDBERG, AINSWORTH, GODBOLD, DYER, SIMPSON, MORGAN, CLARK, INGRAHAM, and RONEY, Circuit Judges.

DYER, Circuit Judge:

In this desegregation class action brought against the Corpus Christi Independent School District and its Board of Trustees,¹ the district court held that the city's mexican-american and black children were segregated from anglo children in the public school system as a result of official action of the Board in violation of the mandate of Brown v. Board of Education, 1954, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873; Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District, S.D. Texas 1970, 324 F.Supp. 599 (Cisneros I). The court ordered an immediate reassignment of the District's teaching staff, consideration of the achievement or preservation of a "reasonable mixture" of mexican-american and black students with other students in construction of new schools, the filing of a revised student assignment plan for the purpose of creating "a unitary school system", and the creation of a Human Relations Advisory committee. Subsequently, after extended hearings, the court formulated and ordered into effect a student assignment plan to achieve integration of the school system in accordance with contemporary constitutional guidelines. Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District, S.D. Texas 1971, 330 F.Supp. 1377 (Cisneros II). See Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 1971, 402 U.S. 1, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 28 L.Ed.2d 554. This order was stayed by Mr. Justice Black, sitting as Circuit Justice, pending consideration of the merits of the Board's appeal by this Court.²

This is a novel school desegregation case. A large number of mexican-american children attend the public schools of Corpus Christi. Although they are now and have been historically separated in fact from anglos in the schools of the city, this separation has never had a statutory origin. Therefore, unlike cases involving the traditional black-white dual systems, the question is whether the segregation of mexican-american children who are not the victims of statutorily mandated segregation is constitutionally impermissible. We hold that it is, and affirm the district court's finding that the mexican-american children of Corpus Christi are segregated in violation of the Constitution. For reasons hereinafter explicated, however, we disagree with the remedy prescribed by the district court and require it to be modified.

Although we are faced with a tri-ethnic school population, the determination below that the relatively few black students in the school system were segregated contrary to law is basically uncontested in this appeal. The district court must, however, also reconsider the remedy with regard to black students in accordance with this opinion.

The Corpus Christi Independent School District encompasses the metropolitan area of Corpus Christi, Texas. The district is crescent-shaped extending approximately 11 miles in length from its southeast to its northwest corner, and varies in width from three to four miles. Following the curvatures of Corpus Christi and Nueces Bays, it is bounded by water on its north, east, and south sides.

In the school year 1969-70, upon which the statistics in this case are based,³ there were 46,023 scholastics in the public school system. In terms of total ethnic distribution, 47.4% of the school children were anglo, 47.2% mexican-american, and 5.4% black. There are 61 public schools in the school system, 45 elementary schools, 12 junior highs, and 5 senior highs. In terms of ethnic distribution by grade level, of the 24,389 elementary students, 43.4% were anglo, 50.8% mexican-american, and 5.7% black. Of the 11,793 junior high students, 48% were anglo, 46.7% mexican-american, and 5.25% black. Of the 9,841 senior high school students, 56.4% were anglo, 38.9% mexican-american, and 4.6% black.

The ethnic distribution figures further show that in 1969-70, one third of the district's mexican-american high school students attended Moody High School, the enrollment of which was 97% mexican-american and black (11% black). Another one-third of the mexican-american high school students attend Miller High, which is 80% mexican-american and black (14% black). One-third of the district's anglo high school students attend King High, the enrollment of which is over 90% anglo. Another 57% of the anglo high school students attend either Carroll or Ray high schools, each of which is over 75% anglo.

In the junior high schools, approximately 61% of the mexican-american students attend three junior highs which are over 90% mexican-american in enrollment. Over 50% of the anglo junior high students attend junior highs that are over 90% anglo in enrollment. Of the 24,389 elementary level students, approximately 10,178 mexican-americans and blacks (1,250 blacks) attend elementary schools in which over 90% of the enrollment is non-anglo. Approximately 6,561 anglo elementary students attend schools in which the non-anglo enrollment is less than 20%. The enrollment in eleven of the 45 elementary schools in the school system is over 90% mexican-american, over 75% mexican-american in three other schools, over 95% mexican-american and black in four other schools, over 90% anglo in six other schools, and over 80% anglo in nine other schools.⁴

At the elementary level alone, 29 of the 45 schools, or almost a full two-thirds, are clearly identifiable as consisting of one ethnic derivation. The same total figure comparisons can roughly be made with regard to the junior and senior high schools of the school system.

Highly relevant to these enrollment statistics are the historic and established residential patterns of the city. There is today and has traditionally been substantial residential concentration by ethnic groups in Corpus Christi. The mexican-american and black population of the district is concentrated in a narrow area that comprises the middle part of the district, running roughly southwest to northeast, bordered on the south side by a major city artery, Ayres Street. This residential concentration is referred to throughout the litigation as the mexican "corridor". To the south of Ayres Street, as the corridor boundary, the relative number of mexican-americans and blacks, as opposed to anglos, drops sharply. The southern part of the district exists almost exclusively as an anglo residential area.

Since before 1938, the district has assigned anglo children to schools according to a neighborhood school plan composed of geographic attendance zones. Students of mexican-american descent have always been classified as anglo by the school board. Generally, students attend school at all levels at the school nearest their home. Thus, the imposition of neighborhood school zones over the pattern of marked residential segregation in Corpus Christi has, inevitably, resulted in mexican-american and anglo children being substantially separated in the public schools.

The city's high schools provide a striking example. The first public high school built in the district still in existence is Miller High, built in 1928, and rebuilt in 1966. It is located at the north end of the mexican corridor, although not in the area of highest mexican-american concentration. Its attendance zone until 1968 comprised all the northern part of the school district. In 1949, its enrollment was 78% anglo, 22% mexican-american. In 1950, Ray High School was built approximately in the center of the school district, to the southeast of the Ayres Street artery which has served as the corridor boundary. It opened with an enrollment that was 87% anglo. A significant number of anglo students was then withdrawn from Miller into Ray High School. In 1958, Carrol was opened in the south central part of the district, again south of Ayres Street, and served an attendance zone that extended beyond Ayres north into the heart of the mexican-american corridor. It opened, however, as a 78% anglo school. While Ray remained fairly constant at its 87% anglo enrollment figure, Miller now had a majority of mexican-american students. In 1965, King High School was opened in the southernmost corner of the district, with an enrollment that was 95% anglo (90% in 1969-70). By this time Miller High had become 71% mexican-american, and 8% black.

In 1968, Moody High School was opened in the heart of the mexican-american corridor as a 96% mexican-american-black school (11% black). Its southernmost boundary was Ayres Street. Its attendance zone encompassed the great majority of the mexican-american concentration of the corridor, sequestering all of that area north of Ayres that once was included in the Carroll attendance zone. Whereas the students that lived in the corridor had formerly been divided in the Carroll, Miller, and Ray schools, their inclusion in the Moody zone now locked over two-thirds of the city's mexican-american high school students into two high schools located in the...