Henry v. Coahoma County Board of Education, 21438.

• Decision Date: 04 January 1966
• Docket Number: No. 21438.,21438.
• Citation: 353 F.2d 648
• Parties: Noelle M. HENRY, Appellant, v. COAHOMA COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

353 F.2d 648 (1965)

Noelle M. HENRY, Appellant, v. COAHOMA COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Appellees.

No. 21438.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

December 3, 1965.

Rehearing Denied January 4, 1966.

Derrick A. Bell, Jr., New York City, R. Jess Brown, Jackson, Miss., Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley, New York City, for appellant.

William H. Maynard, Clarksdale, Miss., Will S. Wells, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., Richard L. Morgan, Washington, D. C., George F. Maynard, Jr., Clarksdale, Miss., Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen. of Mississippi, Jackson, Miss., for appellees.

Philip J. Hirschkop, Lainof, Cohen & Cohen, Alexandria, Va., for the N. E. A. Commission on Professional Rights and Responsibilities, amici curiae, Richard L. Morgan, Washington, D. C., of counsel.

Before HUTCHESON and BROWN, Circuit Judges, and MORGAN, District Judge.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, denying plaintiff the relief she sought in her suit to require by injunction that she be re-employed as a teacher in the Public School System of Coahoma County, Mississippi.

Appellant, Mrs. Henry, is a negro school teacher who has taught in the same school for eleven years. In Mississippi teachers have no tenure but are hired on one year contracts which are reviewed for renewal each year. The usual or ordinary, indeed the required, procedure is that the teacher's principal or supervisor makes his recommendation for renewal to the County School Superintendent, and the superintendent in turn makes his recommendation to the School Board. It is statutory in Mississippi¹ that the School Board cannot hire anyone not recommended by the County Superintendent. It is also required by statute that all teacher applicants list all organizations to which they do belong or have belonged or to which they have contributed money for the past five years. Mrs. Henry was, and is, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and also the only teacher to so state on her application. Although she was recommended by her supervisors to Hunter, the County Superintendent, Hunter did not recommend her, and her contract was not renewed for the 1962-1963 school year.

Mrs. Henry testified that she made three separate attempts to obtain an explanation from Hunter or the School Board as to the basis of the refusal to renew her contract, but each time Hunter told her the Board had made the refusal and had given him no reason therefor and that further discussion of the matter would be useless. She filed suit, stating as the basis for her complaint that the Board had refused to renew her contract because she was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and because her husband was and is President of that Association in Mississippi. Relief prayed for was that the Board be enjoined from refusing to renew her contract for 1962-1963 and that the statute requiring teacher applicants to list their organizational activities be declared unconstitutional.

At the trial Hunter testified that the Board had not renewed the contract because he had not recommended Mrs. Henry. When questioned by the court, he stated that his refusal to recommend her was based on the fact that her husband had been convicted on a morals charge and had suffered an adverse judgment in a libel suit, and that he had reliable information that suit was about to be filed against Mrs. Henry in respect of a fraudulent conveyance made to her by her husband. Hunter expressly testified that his decision was not due to Mrs. Henry's or her husband's civil rights activities or any N.A.A.C.P. affiliations.

At the conclusion of the hearing the Court ordered a time for filing memorandum briefs. During this time Mrs. Henry moved to amend her complaint under Rule 15(b) to conform to the reasons given by Hunter as a basis for his refusal to recommend her. The district judge refused to allow the amendment on the basis that it would change the entire...