Constantian v. Anson County, 463

• Decision Date: 06 June 1956
• Docket Number: No. 463,463
• Citation: 244 N.C. 221,93 S.E.2d 163
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: R. K. CONSTANTIAN, a taxpayer of Anson County, on behalf of himself and all other taxpayers of Anson County, v. ANSON COUNTY.

Page 163

93 S.E.2d 163

244 N.C. 221

R. K. CONSTANTIAN, a taxpayer of Anson County, on behalf of himself and all other taxpayers of Anson County, v. ANSON COUNTY.

No. 463

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 6, 1956

Bennett M. Edwards, Wadesboro, for plaintiff-appellant.

Taylor, Kitchin & Taylor, Wadesboro, and Reed, Hoyt, Taylor & Washburn, New York City, for defendant, appellee.

Atty. Gen., Wm. B. Rodman, Jr., and Asst. Atty. Gen., Robert E. Giles, amici curiae.

BOBBITT, Justice.

The bond order and the election, authorizing the $1,250,000 issue, were approved by this Court in Parker v. Anson County, 237 N.C. 78, 74 S.E.2d 338. Even so, plaintiff now insists that the bond order was and is void on its face because it discriminates against children of the white race in violation of the Constitution of North Carolina, Article IX, section 2. The sole basis for this contention is that the facilities identified in projects (5) and (6) were described as facilities suitable for colored children. This contention is clearly without merit.

Unquestionably, it was contemplated that projects (5) and (6) would make available additional plant facilities wherein only colored children would be taught. It was also contemplated that some or all of the other projects would make available additional plant facilities wherein only white children would be taught. Any other inference would lose touch with reality. The nine projects constituted one complete program, reflecting the judgment and discretion of the school authorities in the three administrative units, designed to provide additional plant facilities for all school children of Anson County.

Lowery v. Board of Graded School Trustees, 140 N.C. 33, 52 S.E. 267, and Bonitz v. Board of Trustees of Ahoskie School Dist. No. 11, 154 N.C. 375, 70 S.E. 735, relied on by defendant, rather than Williams v. Bradford, 158 N.C. 36, 73 S.E. 154, relied on by plaintiff, are more nearly in point. However, the authority of these cases need not be invoked as a basis for decision here; for, based upon any reasonable interpretation thereof, the bond order on its face does not show discrimination against children of the white race.

Having reached this conclusion, there is no need to consider whether plaintiff, on principles of res judicata, is precluded by the decision in Parker v. Anson County, supra, from now making such contention.

Assuming the original validity of the bonds so authorized, plaintiff contends that, by reason of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States made subsequent to such authorization, the purpose for which the bonds were authorized cannot now be realized. This purpose, plaintiff contends, was to finance additional school plant facilities for a public school system wherein the children of the white race and the children of the colored race would be taught in separate schools, the only system then lawful.

Sections 2 and 3, Article IX, Constitution of North Carolina, bear directly on the questions presented. Each section is quoted below.

' § 2. The General Assembly, at its first session under this Constitution, shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a general and uniform system of public schools, wherein tuition shall be free of charge to all children of the State between the ages of six and twenty-one years. And the children of the white race and the children of the colored race shall be taught in separate public schools; but there shall be no discrimination in favor of, or to the prejudice of, either race.'

As ratified April 24, 1868, Article IX, section 2, consisted solely of the first of the two sentences. The second sentence was added by amendment adopted by the Constitutional Convention of 1875, ratified by the people in November, 1876, effective January 1, 1877. Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1875; Connor & Cheshire, The Constitution of North Carolina; Elliott v. State Board of Equalization, 203 N.C. 749, 166 S.E. 918.

' § 3. Each county of the State shall be divided into a convenient number of districts, in which one or more public schools shall be maintained at least six months in every year; and if the commissioners of any county shall fail to comply with the aforesaid requirements of this section, they shall be liable to indictment.'

As ratified April 24, 1868, Article IX, section 3, was as quoted except the words 'four months' then appeared rather than the words 'six months.' This amendment, submitted by the General Assembly of 1917, Ch. 192, Public Laws of 1917, became effective upon its ratification by the people in November, 1917. Elliott v. State Board of Equalization, supra.

These propositions are well established. Article IX, section 2, contains a mandate that the General Assembly provide for a State public school system. Article IX, section 3, contains a mandate that the board of commissioners of each county in the State provide the funds for the buildings and equipment necessary for the maintenance and operation of schools within the county for the constitutional term. Marshburn v. Brown, 210 N.C. 331, 186 S.E. 265. Full responsibility for the administration of school affairs and the instruction of children within each administrative unit, including the assignment of pupils to particular schools, rests upon the school authorities of such unit. Parker v. Anson County, supra, and cases cited. In short, when the board of commissioners provides the funds for the necessary buildings and equipment, it has no further responsibility or authority. The school authorities within each administrative unit have full responsibility and authority in respect of the school program.

It was the duty of the Board of Commissioners of Anson County to provide the funds for necessary plant facilities. The bond order set forth in express terms that $1,250,000 was needed for that purpose. The Board of Commissioners and the electorate authorized the bond issue to provide the funds necessary for such additional plant facilities. Nothing appears in this record to suggest that the needs are less in 1956 than in 1952. Indeed, the court below incorporated in the judgment a finding of fact, to which no exception was taken, that 'additional school plant facilities for the public school system in Anson County are urgently needed now.' When the bonds were authorized, the sole purpose in mind was to provide funds to meet the overall capital outlay needs in respect of all school children of Anson County, white and colored. The school program, as distinguished from plant facilities, was not in ussue or involved.

An entirely different question was presented to this Court in Mauldin v. McAden, 234 N.C. 501, 67 S.E.2d 647, and Gore v. Columbus County, 232 N.C. 636, 61 S.E.2d 890, and Feezor v. Siceloff, 232 N.C. 563, 61 S.E.2d 714, and Waldrop v. Hodges, 230 N.C. 370, 53 S.E.2d 263, and Atkins v. McAden, 229 N.C. 752, 51 S.E.2d 484. In those cases, decision turned on whether subsequent findings in the light of changing educational needs warranted the transfer or reallocation of funds from one project to another within the general purpose (school plant facilities) for which the bonds were authorized. Here there is no suggestion that the funds to be derived from the sale of the unissued bonds ($750,000) are to be transferred or reallocated from one project to another within the general purpose for which the bonds were authorized.

The phrase, suitable for colored children, used in connection with projects (5) and (6), connotes nothing beyond the fact that it was then contemplated that these would make available additional plant facilities wherein colored children would be taught. Obviously, physical school plant facilities and equipment are suitable for the teaching of children, irrespective of race or color.

We come now to the contention upon which plaintiff places major emphasis. It is this: When the bonds were authorized, Article IX, section 2, as construed by this Court, contained the mandatory requirement that children of the white race and children of the colored race be taught in separate schools. Puitt v. Gaston County Commissioners, 94 N.C. 709; Lowery v. Board of Graded School Trustees, supra. Moreover, the validity of such mandatory requirement had the sanction of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States; for, as late as 1927, Chief Justice Taft, speaking for a unanimous Court, had explicitly declared that each state had the right and discretion to determine, in respect of its public school system, whether the children of different races should be taught in the same or separate schools, 'the same question which has been many times decided to be within the constitutional power of the state Legislature to settle, without intervention of the federal courts under the federal Constitution.' Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78, 48 S.Ct. 91, 93, 72 L.Ed. 172. However, in 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States declared that the enforced separation of Negroes and whites in public schools solely on the basis of race denied to Negroes equal protection of the laws, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873, 38 A.L.R.2d 1180, and in its 1955 decision applied the proposition so declared to the cases before it. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 349 U.S. 294, 75 S.Ct. 753, 99 L.Ed. 1083. The bonds were authorized when it was contemplated that children of the white race and children of the colored race would be taught in separate...