Johnson v. Halifax County

• Decision Date: 10 July 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-48-CIV-8,83-88-CIV-8.,83-48-CIV-8
• Citation: 594 F. Supp. 161
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of North Carolina
• Parties: Horace JOHNSON, Sr., et al., Plaintiffs, v. HALIFAX COUNTY, et al., Defendants, UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. HALIFAX COUNTY, et al., Defendants.

594 F. Supp. 161

Horace JOHNSON, Sr., et al., Plaintiffs, v. HALIFAX COUNTY, et al., Defendants, UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. HALIFAX COUNTY, et al., Defendants.

Nos. 83-48-CIV-8, 83-88-CIV-8.

United States District Court, E.D. North Carolina, Wilson Division.

July 10, 1984.

Leslie J. Winner, Chambers, Ferguson, Watt, Wallas, Adkins, P.A., Charlotte, N.C., Jack Greenberg, Lani Guinier, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Steven H. Rosenbaum, Poli A. Marmolejos, Dept. of Justice, Civ. Rights Div., Washington, D.C., for United States.

Odes L. Stroupe, Jr., John R. McArthur, Hunton & Williams, Raleigh, N.C., for defendants.

REASONS FOR THE ISSUANCE OF ORDER DATED JULY 2, 1984, GRANTING PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

JAMES C. FOX, District Judge.

The United States and the Johnson plaintiffs (19 black registered voters of Halifax County, North Carolina) sought a preliminary injunction concerning the 1984 elections for the Halifax County Board of Commissioners in order to ensure that the right to vote of black citizens of Halifax County is not denied or abridged in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as amended. 42 U.S.C. § 1973 (hereinafter, "Section 2"), and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Johnson plaintiffs filed suit on June 6, 1983. The United States filed suit October 6, 1983, asserting a Section 2 claim, and in addition, alleging that the County failed to obtain preclearance of two components of its election method in violation of Section 5 of the Act. Plaintiffs' Section 2 claims have been consolidated for determination by this single-judge district court.

Upon review of plaintiffs' complaint, plaintiffs' motions and briefs in support thereof, defendants' response and affidavits submitted by all parties, and after oral argument on June 26, the court concluded that plaintiffs sustained their primary burden of establishing they will suffer irreparable harm unless an injunction issued and that they will likely succeed on the merits of this action. Therefore, plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction was granted by order dated July 2, 1984, based upon the following facts and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACT¹

A. Background

1. Halifax County is a large, predominantly rural county in northeastern North Carolina. According to the 1980 Census, as corrected, Halifax County had a population of 55,076, of whom 26,811 (48.7%) were white and 26,599 (48.3%) were black. The voting age population in 1980 was 38,051, of whom 20,280 (53.3%) were white and 16,675 (44.1%) were black. In 1980, there were 24,634 registered voters, of whom 15,669 (63.6%) were white and 8,513 (34.6%) were black. The black voter registration rate was 50.8 percent, whereas the white voter registration rate was 77.3 percent. The voters of Halifax County have not elected a black candidate to the Board of County Commissioners in this century.

2. The county has 12 townships, ranging in 1980 population from 517 to 20,340. Roanoke Rapids, which is the township with the largest population, is the only township with a white population majority (79.4%). In 1980, 60 percent of the whites in Halifax County lived in Roanoke Rapids Township, while 85 percent of the county's blacks lived in the other eleven townships.

B. Method of Electing the Board of County Commissioners

3. The members of the Halifax County Board of County Commissioners were nominated and elected on an at-large basis for two-year, concurrent terms from 1896 through 1944. 1895 N.C.Sess.Laws 135; 1903 N.C.Sess.Laws 515. Beginning in the 1944 elections, the county was divided into five districts based upon township lines. Each district nominated a county commissioner; general elections were still held on an at-large basis. 1943 N.C.Sess.Laws 317. This system of nomination by district but election at-large operated essentially as a single-member district system because nomination by the Democratic Party virtually assured election.

4. The district nomination method lasted from 1944 until 1960, when the county reverted to a system of at-large nomination and election. 1959 N.C.Sess.Laws 1041. In 1960, voters in Halifax County were allowed to choose between an at-large system with or without residence districts. Voters were not allowed to choose to retain the district nomination system that had been in effect since 1944. Ibid. By a vote of 7,255 to 2,611, the voters chose an at-large system with residency districts.

5. Since 1960, Halifax County has both nominated and elected county commissioners on an at-large basis, with at least one commissioner from each of five residency districts. In 1968, the terms of county commissioners were staggered and increased from two years to four years. 1967 N.C.Sess.Laws 839. Even though this change was implemented in 1968, the preclearance required by Section 5 was not obtained until May 16, 1984, when the Attorney General declined to interpose an objection.

6. In 1971, the state legislature readopted and expanded the at-large election system by adding a sixth commissioner who would reside in Roanoke Rapids Township but he nominated and elected on an at-large basis. 1971 N.C.Sess.Laws 681. The county has implemented this change since 1972, although it had not sought preclearance under Section 5 before this suit was filed. On May 16, 1984, the Attorney General interposed a timely objection under Section 5 to the voting changes occasioned by the 1971 law. In addressing the county's readoption and expansion of the at-large election system, the Section 5 objection states:

While we have noted the submission's statement that Chapter 681 was adopted to remedy malapportioned residency districts, the county has presented no adequate explanation for adopting the method chosen. The county commission admittedly considered other alternatives but those other alternatives and the reason(s) for their rejection have not been identified. Several obvious options, such as eliminating residency districts (thereby allowing single-shot voting) or adopting a single-member district election system, would have enhanced black voting strength yet apparently were rejected in favor of the Chapter 681 alternative which maintained black voting strength at a minimum level. There is no evidence that black citizens were consulted about the malapportionment issue, nor was it submitted to the voters in a referendum as has been the past procedure for modifying the method of electing the county commission.

7. Although the five-member at-large election plan which was in force and effect as of November 1, 1964, contains such racially discriminatory features as may exist in the plan to which the Attorney General objected, Section 5, by itself, does not preclude use of said five-member plan. See City of Rome v. United States, 446 U.S. 156, 182, 100 S.Ct. 1548, 1564, 64 L.Ed.2d 119 (1980). That system required at-large nomination and election of five commissioners, with one commissioner residing in each of five residence districts.² County commissioners serve four-year, staggered terms. A majority-vote requirement applies in the primary elections. N.C.Gen. Stat. § 163-111.

8. Defendants have submitted affidavits which tend to show that Halifax County's current method of electing County Commissioners is a political compromise adopted without intent to abridge the right of black citizens to vote. As hereinafter discussed, however, such intent is not an essential predicate for a violation of Section 2.

C. Racial Discrimination in Voting Matters

9. "The State of North Carolina had officially and effectively discriminated against black citizens in matters touching their exercise of the voting franchise for a period of around seventy years, roughly two generations, from ca. 1900 to ca. 1970." Gingles v. Edmisten, 590 F.Supp. 345 at 359 (E.D.N.C.1984).³ In 1900, North Carolina voters approved "constitutional amendments specifically designed to disenfranchise black voters by imposing a poll tax and a literacy test for voting with a grandfather clause for the literacy test whose effect was to limit the disenfranchising effect to blacks." Gingles, supra, at 359. The following year, the legislature ensured that those devices would have their full effect by requiring a re-registration of all voters subject to the poll tax and literacy test. 1901 N.C.Sess.Laws 89, §§ 12 and 13. "The 1900 official literacy test continued to be freely applied for 60 years in a variety of forms that effectively disenfranchised most blacks." Gingles, supra, at 359; see Bazemore v. Bertie County Board of Elections, 254 N.C. 398, 119 S.E.2d 637 (1961).

10. Consequently, in November 1964, prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act, which barred use of literacy tests in jurisdictions covered by Section 5 of the Act, 42 U.S.C. 1973c, 42 U.S.C. 1973b, blacks constituted only 19.7 percent of Halifax County's registered voters (4,487 "non-whites" out of a total of 22,808).

11. In May 1964, the federal district court found that Halifax County election officials "have been engaging and continue to engage in a course of conduct which discriminatorily deprives Negroes in Halifax County, North Carolina, of an opportunity to register to vote." Alston v. Butts, C.A. No. 875 (E.D.N.C. Temporary Restraining Order, May 8, 1964). The order barred defendants from engaging in dilatory tactics when registering black voters and required weekday registration through May 16, at places other than the registrar's residence. On May 14, 1964, the court granted a preliminary injunction in which some particulars of the earlier order were modified. Ibid.

12. Black citizens in Halifax County who engaged in political activity were subjected to intimidation and retaliation. A black teacher in the Halifax County school system was unlawfully fired in 1964 for her participation in civil rights activity, including "voter registration and voting activity." Johnson v. Branch, 364 F.2d 177, 178 (4th Cir.1966), cert. denied...