Dillard v. Baldwin County Bd. of Educ., Civ. A. No. 87-T-1158-N.

• Decision Date: 08 April 1988
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 87-T-1158-N.
• Citation: 686 F. Supp. 1459
• Parties: John DILLARD, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BALDWIN COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

686 F. Supp. 1459

John DILLARD, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BALDWIN COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 87-T-1158-N.

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, N.D.

April 8, 1988.

James U. Blacksher, Mobile, Ala., Larry Menefee, Edward Still, Reeves & Still, Birmingham, Ala., Julius L. Chambers, Lani Guinier, Pamela Karlan, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Abram L. Philips, Jr., Reams, Vollmer, Philips, Killon, Brooks & Schell, Mobile, Ala., Norborne C. Stone, Jr., Blackburn, Stone, Granade, Crosby & Blackburn, Bay Minette, Ala., Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., Susan Russ, Asst. Atty. Gen., David Boyd, Balch & Bingham, Montgomery, Ala., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

This lawsuit is a challenge to the at-large system used to elect members of the Baldwin County Board of Education. This case is one among many, now pending in this court, challenging the at-large election systems and various features of those systems used by many cities, counties, and county school boards across Alabama. Here the plaintiff class, which includes all black citizens of Baldwin County, charges that the system used by the Baldwin County school board violates § 2 et seq. of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, 42 U.S.C. A. § 1973 et seq. A violation of § 2 is established if official action was taken or maintained with a racially discriminatory "intent" or the action has racially discriminatory "results," determined according to certain Congressionally approved criteria.¹ McMillan v. Escambia County, 748 F.2d 1037, 1046 (5th Cir.1984) (Former Fifth); Buskey v. Oliver, 565 F.Supp. 1473, 1481 & n. 18 (M.D.Ala.1983). As the Supreme Court recently stated, "Section 2 prohibits all forms of voting discrimination." Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 45 n. 10, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 2764 n. 10, 92 L.Ed.2d 25 (1986) (emphasis added).

Based on the evidence presented at a nonjury trial on March 14, 1988, the court concludes that the school board's election system violates § 2 and that the plaintiff class is thus entitled to appropriate relief.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This lawsuit is a spin-off of earlier proceedings in another case, Dillard v. Crenshaw County, civil action no. 85-T-1332-N, brought under § 2 to challenge the at-large schemes used to elect county commissioners in nine Alabama counties. See 640 F.Supp. 1347 (M.D.Ala.1986); 649 F.Supp. 289 (M.D.Ala.1986), affirmed in part and remanded in part for reconsideration, 831 F.2d 246 (11th Cir.1987), reaffirmed on remand, 679 F.Supp. 1546 (M.D.Ala.1988). There this court found the Alabama legislature guilty of intentional racial discrimination in fashioning and authorizing at-large election schemes for local jurisdictions. The plaintiffs established this discrimination in two ways. First, the evidence reflected that, for the purpose of minimizing black voting strength, the legislature reshaped local at-large election schemes by enacting "anti-single shot" laws in the 1950's and by replacing these laws in 1961 with "numbered place" laws. As the court wrote,

These racially inspired numbered place laws exist and operate today.

Therefore, regardless of the reasons for which the at-large systems were put into place in various counties, ... the numbered place laws have inevitably tainted these systems wherever they exist in the state. In adopting the laws, the state reshaped at-large systems into more secure mechanisms for discrimination. And as the evidence makes clear, this reshaping of the systems was completely intentional.

640 F.Supp. at 1357. Second, the evidence established that the legislature engaged in a century-long pattern and practice of switching between local at-large systems and local single-member district systems as needed to diminish black voting strength. As the court observed,

the Alabama legislature ... has consistently enacted at-large systems for local governments during periods when there was a substantial threat of black participation in the political process. This evidence, set against the background of the state's unrelenting and undisputed history of race discrimination, convinces the court that the enactment of the at-large systems during such periods was not adventitious but rather racially inspired.

Id. at 1361. The court went on to conclude that the legislature's racially motivated manipulation of laws governing at-large systems for local governments violated § 2 of the Voting Rights Act with respect to the counties then defending their election systems. Relief was eventually granted as to the nine counties either by settlement or with a court-ordered remedy. 649 F.Supp. at 291-92, 298-99; 679 F.Supp. at 1547.

The court later allowed the plaintiffs in Crenshaw County to expand their complaint to include 183 cities, counties, and county school boards that are currently using, or are subject to, at-large systems that are allegedly a product of, or tainted by, the racially inspired enactments of the Alabama legislature. All but seven, that is, 176, of these jurisdictions entered into an interim consent decree with the plaintiffs, agreeing to resolution of the plaintiffs' claims in this court and to certification of a plaintiff class of black residents of these jurisdictions.² The parties also agreed under the decree to division of the jurisdictions into three groups: Group A, those which contest both liability and remedy; Group B, those which admit liability but are unable to agree with the plaintiffs on a remedy; and Group C, those which have reached complete settlements with the plaintiffs. The parties also later agreed for the court to treat 165, or all but 18 of the total 183, jurisdictions as individual lawsuits, with separate files and civil action numbers. The Baldwin County Board of Education is one of the 165 jurisdictions that agreed to all of the above.

The school board was originally a member of Group C because it and counsel for plaintiffs agreed at the beginning of this litigation to a single-member district plan with five districts, of which one, according to the school board, would have a majority black population. Shortly after the settlement, however, black leaders in Baldwin County informed plaintiffs' counsel that he should not have accepted the settlement because it did not provide a "true" majority black district. After further investigation, plaintiffs' counsel informed the school board that he agreed with the local black leadership and that he would ask that the court not approve the settlement. Plaintiffs' counsel also proposed a seven-member plan, which he contends contains one effective majority-black district. The school board responded with a motion to enforce settlement. With the agreement of the parties, the court also transferred the school board from Group C to Group A. The school board is therefore contesting both liability and remedy, but is in the alternative asking that the court enforce its settlement with the plaintiffs.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Baldwin County is located in the southwest part of Alabama, and is bordered in part by Mobile Bay to the west and Florida to the east. It has a population, according to the 1980 census, of 78,556 people; of that figure, 12,716, or 16.19%, are black, and 65,840, or 83.81%, are white. However, during this decade the county has experienced a population boom, with most of the boom being made up of whites. It is estimated that by 1990, the population will have increased to 98,820, with the white population having increased by 19,280 to 85,120 or 86.14% of the population, but with the black population having increased by only 984, to 13,700 and with a percentage point decrease to 13.86%.³ Most of the black population is concentrated in neighborhoods on a strip along the county's western border.

III. DISCRIMINATORY RESULTS

A.

The plaintiffs rest their § 2 challenge against the school board on both discriminatory "intent" and "results." In Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 92 L.Ed.2d 25 (1986), the Supreme Court set forth the manner in which a trial court should assess a § 2 results claim. The claim is established where the "totality of the circumstances," 42 U.S.C.A. § 1973(b), reveals that "as a result of the challenged practice or structure plaintiffs do not have an equal opportunity to participate in the political processes and to elect candidates of their choice." Id. at 44, 106 S.Ct. at 2763, quoting S.Rep. No. 417, 97th Cong. 2nd Sess. 28, reprinted in 1982 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad.News, 177, 206 (hereinafter 1982 U.S.Code Cong.). Factors typically considered in evaluating the claim are: (1) the extent of any history of official discrimination in the state or political subdivision that touched the right of the members of the minority group to register, to vote, or otherwise to participate in the democratic process; (2) the extent to which voting in the elections of the state or political subdivision is racially polarized; (3) the extent to which the state or political subdivision has used unusually large election districts, majority vote requirements, anti-single shot provisions, or other voting practices or procedures that may enhance the opportunity for discrimination against the minority group; (4) if there is a candidate slating process, whether the members of the minority group have been denied access to that process; (5) the extent to which members of the minority group in the state or political subdivision bear the effects of discrimination in such areas as education, employment and health, which hinder their ability to participate effectively in the political process; (6) whether political campaigns have been characterized by overt or subtle racial appeals; (7) the extent to which members of the minority group have been elected to public office in the jurisdiction; (8) whether there is a significant lack of responsiveness on the part of elected officials to the particularized needs...