Haney v. County Board of Education of Sevier County, Ark.
| Decision Date | 09 May 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 19404.,19404. |
| Citation | 410 F.2d 920 |
| Parties | Lela Mae HANEY et al., Appellants, v. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF SEVIER COUNTY, ARKANSAS, et al., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Franklin E. White, New York City, for appellants; Norman J. Chachkin, Little Rock, Ark., Jack Greenberg and Michael Meltsner, New York City, and John W. Walker, Little Rock, Ark., were with him on the brief.
John B. Hainen, DeQueen, Ark., for appellees.
Merle W. Loper, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for the United States as amicus curiae; Stephen J. Pollak, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Nathan Lewin, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., and Charles M. Conway, U. S. Atty., Fort Smith, Ark., were with him on the brief.
Before MATTHES, MEHAFFY and LAY, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a decree of the District Court in the Western District of Arkansas dismissing a complaint brought upon behalf of several plaintiffs, Negro parents and children to enjoin the continued maintenance of a racially segregated system of public education in Sevier County in Southwestern Arkansas. The defendants are the County Board of Education of Sevier County, the County Supervisor of Education of Sevier County, the Lockesburg School District No. 16 and the Sevier County School District No. 1. All of the defendants, including the all-Negro school board of Sevier, resist consolidation and integration of their schools. The district court held that the all-Negro school of Sevier County School District No. 1 and the all-white Lockesburg School in the same county, approximately one-half mile away, were not "segregated" schools since they existed in separate school districts and their district lines were not gerrymandered for racial reasons. We reverse and remand with directions to the parties and the district court to effectuate a plan so that the schools in Sevier County shall operate on a "racially nondiscriminatory" and fully integrated basis of faculty and students for the school year 1969-70. See Cato v. Parham, 403 F.2d 12 (8 Cir. 1968).
In 1948 the Arkansas legislature directed all school districts having fewer than 350 children to consolidate into one county school district. The new school district in each county was to be called "the * * * County School District No. * * *." The County School Supervisor was designated to be the superintendent of the new district. Ark. Stat.Ann. § 80-427 (Repl. 1960). The legislature also provided, however, that the small school districts which would be dissolved by the Act could be reorganized or annexed, with the approval of the County Board of Education and the electorate of the school district to which annexation was proposed, and thereby avoid being consolidated into the county school district. Ark.Stat.Ann. §§ 80-426, 80-428 (Repl. 1960).
In Sevier County, there existed some fourteen different school districts in 1948. After annexations and reorganizations into newly formed school districts, there remained three small Negro districts which were consolidated under the Act to become Sevier County School District No. 1. Under the reorganized plan, Negro children in the all-white Lockesburg School attended Sevier County School District No. 1. In 1954 and 1955 the Superintendent of the Lockesburg district circulated a petition to get the consent of the Negro property owners living in the Lockesburg district to transfer their property to the Sevier district. The transfers were approved by the Sevier County Board of Education. This resulted in the Sevier School District having noncontiguous and irregularly shaped geographical areas. See Appendix "A" of map attached. Notwithstanding the advent of Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873, 38 A.L.R.2d 1180 (1954) and 349 U.S. 294, 75 S.Ct. 753, 99 L.Ed. 1083 (1955), these schools have unfortunately remained separated by their racial identity to the present time.
The Lockesburg School District has always denied requests from Negro parents to cross district lines and attend the all-white school. There are now approximately 318 white children attending the one twelve-grade Lockesburg School, with fourteen white teachers serving all twelve grades. The Lockesburg district extends approximately fifteen miles north to south and three to eight miles east to west. Two noncontiguous areas, each approximately twelve miles square, compose the Sevier County School District No. 1. These two areas are approximately two miles apart, and each is almost entirely surrounded by the Lockesburg School District. The Sevier School also has one twelve-grade school with 181 school children attending. Ten teachers are employed by Sevier County School District No. 1. A dual system of transportation is maintained with buses of each district traveling the same roads and crossing district lines to get to the respective schools.
Both Lockesburg elementary and high schools are rated "A" by the Arkansas State Department of Education. Sevier County elementary school has an "A" rating, whereas the high school has only a "C" rating. Extended testimony reflecting the quality of education, the economic status, etc., to justify the continuance of Sevier County School District No. 1 is offered. This testimony is no longer to the point under the charge of segregation in public schools. The doctrine of "separate but equal" is no longer a relevant concept under Brown I.
The district court premised its conclusion that Sevier School District No. 1 is not segregated on a finding that it "was not created for the purpose of creating a segregated school." The trial court reasoned that it was created under Initiated Act No. 1 of 1948 (Ark.Stat. Ann. §§ 80-426 to -429 (Repl. 1960)) and that the sole purpose of the Act was the consolidation of smaller districts into larger districts. The trial court thus concluded that there is no proof of gerrymandering to effect segregation. The court further observed that Sevier School District No. 1 would allow white children to attend if any lived in the district. The court summarized:
Furthermore, the district court observed that the Lockesburg district voted in favor of consolidation with the Sevier district. The court concluded that the Sevier district evidently "does not choose to consolidate" on the basis that the matter never came to a vote in the Sevier district. The district court then noted that consolidation of two school districts is prohibited under Arkansas law unless the electorate of both school districts consent to it. See Ark.Stat.Ann. § 80-420 (Repl. 1960).
We cannot accept the district court's reasoning. The actions of either a local school board, white or black, or the state legislature are subservient to the equal protection clause of the Constitution of the United States.
The contention that the school districts herein involved are not segregated as a matter of law is untenable. The short and quick answer to the argument that they were created for purposes other than racial separation by the Initiated Act of 1948 is that it patently overlooks the then existing state law requiring segregation of public schools.
Section 80-426 which authorized the reorganization of county school districts, by which Sevier County School District No. 1 was created, specifically required that the reorganization be "in accordance with existing law." Section 80-509 required at that time that separate schools "for white and colored persons" be established by the board of school directors of each district. In reorganizing the fourteen separate school districts existing in Sevier County in 1948, the County Board of Education was required to adhere to the state law. It is noteworthy that in doing so, school districts in Sevier County were conveniently reorganized to reflect facile compliance with the segregation policy and law of the state. Of the fourteen districts then existing in Sevier County, five all-white districts were annexed to larger white districts. Two of these districts were annexed to Lockesburg. Two districts which were all Negro were annexed to Negro schools in an adjoining county. Four districts, including Lockesburg with its newly annexed districts, had more than 350 students and retained their identity.2 The remaining three Negro districts combined to form Sevier County School District No. 1.
It is true Arkansas law did not require school districts to be separated by race. But the fact that the various reorganized districts in Sevier County reflect a bi-racial system of education by district lines must be accepted as more than mere coincidence. It is readily apparent that the Sevier County Board of Education approved reorganization of districts along district lines which facilitated the segregated system of public education then required by Arkansas law. It would be sheer fantasy to say that the school districts in Sevier County could be realigned today in the same manner that they were in 1948 and still comply with the constitutional mandate of Brown I and II. School district reorganization took place under the color of state law that then required segregated schools. Under these circumstances, when the resulting district lines drawn reflect a discriminatory pattern, de jure segregation is established. Simply to say there was no intentional gerrymandering of district lines...
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