Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, Civ. A. No. 604-E.
| Decision Date | 12 June 1970 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 604-E. |
| Citation | 317 F. Supp. 95 |
| Parties | Anthony T. LEE et al., Plaintiffs, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor and Amicus Curiae, National Education Association, Inc., Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. MACON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
Solomon S. Seay and Fred D. Gray, Gray, Seay & Langford, Montgomery, Ala., for plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenor, N.E.A.
Jerris Leonard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Robert Pressman and Craig M. Crenshaw, Jr., Attys., Civil Rights Division, U. S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., and Ira DeMent, U. S. Atty., Montgomery, Ala., for the United States.
Richard S. Manley, Demopolis, Ala., for the Pickens County Bd. of Ed.
Before RIVES, Circuit Judge, and GROOMS and JOHNSON, District Judges.
On August 6, 1969, this Court ordered the United States through its Office of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, to file on or before December 1, 1969, a plan whereby, effective with the commencement of the 1970-71 school year, the dual school system based upon race operated by the Board of Education for Pickens County, Alabama, will be effectively and completely disestablished. Pursuant thereto, the United States filed such a plan on December 1, 1969. By order entered December 10, 1969, this Court afforded the Pickens County Board of Education an opportunity to show cause why the plan as proposed by the United States should not be placed into effect with the commencement of the 1970-71 school year.
On February 12, 1970, the Pickens County Board of Education filed, in writing, its objections to the plan proposed by the United States for the Southern Attendance Zone and proposed, in lieu thereof, that it be allowed to continue to operate in the Southern Attendance Zone two separate campuses to be named Aliceville South Campus (formerly Aliceville High School and Aliceville Elementary School) and the Aliceville North Campus (formerly R. J. Kirksey High School and R. J. Kirksey Elementary School). The Board further proposed to assign all white students in the Southern Attendance Zone area, commencing with the school year 1970-71, to the Aliceville South Campus and to assign Negro students in the Southern Attendance Zone to the Aliceville South Campus on a distributive basis from grades 1 through 12 "so that the Negro enrollment at the Aliceville South Campus will be not less than 40% of the total enrollment at the Aliceville South Campus." The Board further proposed as to the Southern Attendance Zone to assign all other students—all of whom are Negroes—to the Aliceville North Campus. The Board, in addition, proposed to schedule certain classes exclusively in the Aliceville North Campus and others exclusively in the Aliceville South Campus and to shuttle students between the campuses.
In its response of February 12, the Pickens County Board of Education further proposed to assign the thirty white students residing in the Central Attendance Zone, who would, according to the plan of the United States, be assigned to the Pickens County Junior High School, to the Carrollton High School. The effect of this proposal would be to leave the Pickens County Junior High School attended only by Negro students.
This Court on February 14, 1970, ordered the United States and the National Education Association, Inc., as plaintiff-intervenors, and the plaintiffs, to show cause why this Court should not approve the Board's proposed amendments to the desegregation plan filed by the United States through its Office of Education. The United States, the National Education Association, Inc., and the plaintiffs filed written objections to the amendments proposed by the Pickens County Board of Education. The matter was heard by the Court March 13, 1970.
Now, upon consideration of the plan filed by the United States through its Office of Education, the proposed amendments thereto by the Pickens County Board of Education, and the several objections to said proposed amendments, this Court is of the opinion that the amendments proposed by the school board to the desegregation plan filed by the United States through its Office of Education on December 1, 1969, may not be allowed. The Pickens County Board of Education has heretofore operated four pairs of black and white schools, offering grades 1 to 12, in four separate areas of Pickens County: Reform, Gordo, Carrollton and Aliceville. The reports filed with this Court by the Pickens County Board of Education, pursuant to the order of March 22, 1967, and the amendments thereto, reflect that the schools in Pickens County that have operated under the freedom-of-choice plan of desegregation have remained racially identifiable. No white students have attended any of the Negro schools, and the following table represents the percentage of Negro students who now attend or have attended formerly allwhite schools:
Percentage of
School Year Negro Students
1967-68 --- .8%
1968-69 --- 1.7%
1969-70 --- 16.1%
The dramatic increase for the school year 1969-70 in the percentage of Negro students who are attending formerly all-white schools was occasioned by this Court's order of August 6, 1969, requiring the Pickens County Board of Education, as a transitionary measure, to assign Negro students to each of the predominantly white schools; further, in the order of August 6, 1969, this Court made a formal finding that the freedom-of-choice plan of desegregation had not worked in the Pickens County school system and, based upon this finding, ordered the plan now under consideration filed by the United States.
The plan filed by the United States as prepared by the Office of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, creates four attendance zones, within each of which is located one heretofore predominantly white and one heretofore all-black school facility. The Central Zone is divided into two areas for grades 5 to 9. The grade structure of the schools is reorganized so that, except as just mentioned with reference to the Central Zone, no two schools within the same zone will offer the same grade. In the Eastern Zone, the United States proposes that the Court order closed the Oak Lane Elementary School—an allblack school. The plan projects the following enrollments:
Grades White Negro Total
EASTERN ZONE
Gordo High 8-12 340 101 441
Gordo Elementary 1-7 561 199 760
NORTHERN ZONE
Pickens County
High 6-12 433 417 850
Hopewell
Elementary 1-5 359 330 689
CENTRAL ZONE
Carrollton High 1-12 312 279 591
Pickens County
Jr. High 5-9 30 210 240
SOUTHERN ZONE
Aliceville High 9-12 200 470 670
R. J. Kirksey
Jr. High 5-8 184 512 696
R. J. Kirksey
Elementary 1-4 186 500 686
The plan as proposed by the United States undoubtedly provides for an administratively sound method of student assignment and for the disestablishment of the racial identifiability of the schools operated by the Pickens County Board of Education. No less is allowed by the law. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954); Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294, 75 S.Ct. 753, 99 L.Ed. 1083 (1955); Green v. County School Board, 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968); Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed.2d 19 (1969).
The proposal of the Pickens County Board as it concerns the Southern Zone would leave the Aliceville North Campus composed of 1,100 Negro students and no white students. As to the Central Zone, the Pickens County Junior High School is proposed by the school board as an all-Negro school. The operation of such a school system, or a part thereof, would under the facts of this particular case clearly violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The Board's proposal as to the Southern and Central...
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