Kelley v. Metropolitan County Bd. of Educ.

Decision Date14 August 1985
Docket NumberNo. 2094,2956.,2094
Citation615 F. Supp. 1139
PartiesRobert W. KELLEY, et al. v. METROPOLITAN COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF NASHVILLE & DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE, et al., v. STATE OF TENNESSEE; Lamar Alexander, Governor of the State of Tennessee; Robert L. McElrath, Commissioner of Education; and State Board of Education.
CourtU.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Avon N. Williams, Jr., Richard H. Dinkins, Williams & Dinkins, Nashville, James M. Nabrit, III, Theodore M. Shaw, Bill Lann Lee, New York City, for plaintiffs Robert W. Kelley, et al.

William R. Willis, Jr., Marian F. Harrison, Willis & Knight, Nashville, Tenn., for defendants Metro, et al.

R. Stephen Doughty, Deputy Atty. Gen., Stephen Nunn, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Tenn., for defendants State of Tenn., et al.

MEMORANDUM

WISEMAN, Chief Judge.

The City of Nashville and surrounding Davidson County have struggled with desegregation since 1956. Social and political turmoil created by the issue have made the process particularly arduous — and in recent years expensive. Between 1971 and 1982, Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Metro spent approximately $20,000,000 to desegregate its public schools, with an estimated annual recurring cost (as of 1982) of $6,000,000.

Until today, Metro Nashville has gone it alone. The State of Tennessee has viewed desegregation strictly as a local matter. The Court now rules that State officials shall be enjoined from further refusing to carry out their affirmative, continuing duty to eliminate the vestiges of segregation which Tennessee's own constitution, statutes, policies and practices created and maintained during the last one hundred years. Pursuant to the injunction, the Court orders the State to assume sixty percent (60%) of the costs of the desegregation program in Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County.

The Court grants the motion for partial summary judgment of third party plaintiff Metropolitan County Board of Education of Nashville and Davidson County. Fed.R. Civ.P. 56.

Jurisdiction

The Court proceeds under 28 U.S.C. § 1343 and 2201 to adjudicate issues arising under the Civil Rights Acts, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 1985. The Eleventh Amendment does not bar the action since third party plaintiffs seek to enjoin state officials from refusing to conform their conduct to well established constitutional standards. Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). The Court is vested with legal authority to decide the merits of the claims against these officials and to issue such ancillary orders as equity deems necessary to enforce the injunction. Bradley v. Milliken, 540 F.2d 229, 245-46 (6th Cir.1976), aff'd, 433 U.S. 267, 97 S.Ct. 2749, 53 L.Ed.2d 745 (1977).

Facts

This case has proceeded before this Court since 1956. The facts are long and detailed. For purposes of the current issue, the Court confines its consideration to the conduct of state and county officials in carrying out the mandate of Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954), which ordered the end of state-imposed segregation and directed states to desegregate public schools "with all deliberate speed."1

The issue presented is whether the undisputed facts demonstrate that the State of Tennessee is a "constitutional wrongdoer" culpable for the continuing effects of state-imposed segregation and is therefore subject to an injunction and ancillary order directing the State to share in the costs of desegregating Metro schools.

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments represent the end of a century of slavery throughout the South. Despite Congress' enactment of the Civil Rights Acts, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, et seq., to protect blacks against unfair treatment by state officials and to assure them the rights and privileges guaranteed to all persons within the United States, enforcement of the Jim Crow laws through the mid-1960's diminished the rights of blacks, segregating them from other American citizens and limiting their opportunities to obtain quality education, housing, and medical care.

In 1954 the Supreme Court, recognizing the inequitable position of the nation's minorities, declared an end to the "separate, but equal" policies practiced by many states. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954). In 1955, Chief Justice Warren, speaking for the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294, 299-301, 75 S.Ct. 753, 755-756, 99 L.Ed. 1083 (1955) (Brown II), directed school authorities to devise and implement policies to assure the admission of all students to public schools on racially nondiscriminatory bases at the earliest practicable date.

The Brown decision had an immediate impact in Tennessee. At the time Brown was decided, the Tennessee Constitution mandated separation of the races in public schools. Article XI § 12 provided in relevant part:

No school established or aided under this section shall allow white and negro children to be received as scholars in the same school.

The Tennessee Supreme Court struck down the provision as unconstitutional in 1956. Roy v. Brittain, 201 Tenn. 140, 297 S.W.2d 72 (1956). The State of Tennessee held four constitutional conventions between 1959 and 1978. Despite the Brittain Court's ruling, the provision was not removed from Tennessee's official books until the fourth convention in 1978.

The Brown II directive created great apprehension throughout many communities. Local school boards were particularly concerned about their responsibility to desegregate schools. In response to numerous requests for advice and direction, Attorney General George McCanless issued an opinion letter defining the State's legal responsibility in implementing the Brown II mandate and that of the local school boards. The June 16, 1955, letter states:

Under the Code of Tennessee the management of the public schools is solely the business of the local school boards. These boards, within the limits of applicable law, determine all of the local school problems. This has been the law since the origin of the public school system in Tennessee and is the law today. Under this state of the law it is the responsibility of each local school board to determine for itself the way in which it is going to meet the problem of desegregating the schools under its jurisdiction.
Each board must determine for itself, in light of all existing applicable circumstances, (physical, fiscal, sociological, transportation problems, etc.) when, where, how and to what degree, the schools under its jurisdiction are to be desegregated. This imposes upon each board the duty of considering for itself its own course of action.
Local school boards which are sued by negroes seeking admission to schools under their jurisdiction must be prepared to defend their own action determining the manner in which their schools shall be desegregated. It will be necessary for legal counsel for defense of such suit to be provided by the county, the city, or special school district involved. While the office of the Attorney General is aware of the problems that will confront the school boards and is sympathetic with their problems, the office can do no more than to advise with representatives of the boards with respect to these problems as they arise. Under the Constitution and the statutes of Tennessee, the office of the Attorney General is limited to representation of the state and of state officials with respect to state revenue and other state matters. Counties, cities, and special districts have always been required by law to provide their own legal counsel in matters affecting them, and this has not been changed because of the desegregation opinion; however, within the limits of our ability and to the extent permitted by the most favorable interpretation of the statutes defining and regulating our duties, we stand ready to furnish such advice and guidance as under the circumstances we can.
While, as indicated above, the State Department of Education has no legal responsibility to determine the manner in which the segregation problem will be dealt with in each school district, there is much the Department can do by way of correlation of information and other things which will occur to you as the responsible head of that Department. As a result of conferences with you I know that you intend to have the Department of Education do all that it can within the framework of existing law to assist local school boards in the solution of their heavy and vexing problems.

The McCanless opinion letter established the State's policy to keep out the politics of desegregation, leaving local communities to grapple with the issue. The State asserts in its brief that the McCanless letter represents the State of Tennessee's policy on desegregation which continues today. Third Party Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment, Memorandum at 7 (filed December 19, 1984).

The plaintiffs in this case filed their complaint on September 23, 1955. The State was not named as a defendant.

Despite General McCanless' 1955 statement that desegregation was purely a "local school problem," in January of 1957, the Tennessee legislature passed the parental preference statutes permitting "voluntary segregation" of the races in public schools. T.C.A. § 49-3704 (1957); see Transcript of Debate on House Bill 29 (1957), Exhibit D, Third Party Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (filed 12-19-84). In September of 1957, this Court struck down the parental preference statutes; the holding later was affirmed by the Sixth Circuit. Kelley v. Board of Education, 270 F.2d 209, 230 (6th Cir.), cert. denied 361 U.S. 924, 80 S.Ct. 293, 4 L.Ed.2d 240 (1959). Ignoring the ruling, in December of 1957, the Nashville School Board submitted a desegregation plan to this Court grounded on the parental preference statute and the principles of "voluntary desegregation."...

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8 cases
  • Kelley v. Metropolitan County Bd. of Educ. of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)
    • March 15, 1988
    ...Tennessee ("Metro"). The subsequent history of the litigation is well set out in the district court's opinion, reported at 615 F.Supp. 1139 (M.D.Tenn.1985), and in an earlier opinion reported at 492 F.Supp. 167 (M.D.Tenn.1980); we shall not repeat the story The present dispute began in 1981......
  • Stanley v. Darlington County School Dist., Civ. A. No. 4:62-7749-22.
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    • United States District Courts. 4th Circuit. United States District Court of South Carolina
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    ...finances, rather than those of a subdepartment such as a local school board, are at stake. In Kelley v. Metropolitan County Board of Education, 615 F.Supp. 1139, 1152 (M.D.Tenn.1985), rev'd on other grounds, 836 F.2d 986 (6th Cir.1987), the court stated, in dicta, that while the provision o......
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