Lee v. Washington County Bd. of Ed.

• Decision Date: 18 September 1980
• Docket Number: No. 78-3338,78-3338
• Citation: Lee v. Washington County Bd. of Ed., 625 F.2d 1235 (5th Cir. 1980)
• Parties: 24 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 31,253 Anthony T. LEE et al., Plaintiffs, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, National Education Association, Plaintiff-Intervenor, Appellant, v. WASHINGTON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1235

625 F.2d 1235

24 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 31,253

Anthony T. LEE et al., Plaintiffs United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor National Education Association, Plaintiff-Intervenor, Appellant, v. WASHINGTON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 78-3338.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Sept. 18, 1980.

Solomon S. Seay, Jr., Montgomery, Ala., for plaintiff-intervenor, appellant.

Edward P. Turner, Jr., Chatom, Ala., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.

Before MORGAN, CHARLES CLARK and TATE, Circuit Judges.

CHARLES CLARK, Circuit Judge:

In this appeal from an interim order in an ongoing school desegregation controversy, we review a judgment of the district court that denied in part the plaintiff-intervenor's motion and amended motion for further relief from the school system's employment practices and several of its individual employment decisions. We affirm in part and, in part, vacate and remand.

On January 22, 1970, a three-judge district court entered an order requiring the desegregation of the Washington County, Alabama, public school system. This order provided, in relevant part, that "(s)taff members who work directly with school children and professional staff who work on the administrative level will be hired, assigned, promoted, paid, demoted and dismissed without regard to race or color."

In September 1976 and November 1977, the plaintiff-intervenor, National Education Association, Inc. (NEA), filed a motion and an amended motion for further relief, contending that the policies and practices of the Washington County Board of Education (Board) with respect to the appointment of principals, the hiring and assignment of teachers and teachers' aides, the appointment and assignment of athletic coaches and the selection of the Board's central office staff violated the fourteenth amendment and failed to comply with the terminal order of desegregation. Additionally, the NEA advanced individual claims of employment discrimination on behalf of six blacks who either were terminated from or not appointed to various positions in the Washington County public school system. After a two-day hearing at which the parties presented both oral testimony and documentary evidence, the district court, on August 6, 1978, issued an opinion and entered a judgment that granted in part and denied in part the NEA's motions for further relief. ¹ See Lee v. Washington County Board of Education, 456 F.Supp. 1175 (S.D.Ala.1978).

On appeal, the NEA argues that the district court erred by failing to require the Board to affirmatively recruit and employ qualified blacks for the athletic coaching and central office staffs. It also contends the district court erred by failing to grant relief on the individual claims of employment discrimination brought on behalf of Warren Roberts, Cleophus Stephens, and Vera Breech. ² We affirm the judgment of the district court insofar as it refused to currently require an affirmative effort on the part of the Board to recruit and employ qualified blacks for the athletic coaching and central office staffs. We also affirm the portion of the judgment that denied the individual claim of employment discrimination brought on behalf of Breech. However, with respect to the individual claims of employment discrimination brought on behalf of Roberts and Stephens, we vacate the judgment and remand the action to the district court.

I. Coaching and Central Office Staffs

The plaintiff-intervenor introduced evidence demonstrating that all fourteen of the head athletic coaches and sixteen of the eighteen assistant athletic coaches hired by the Board between the school years 1970-71 and 1976-77 were white. It also introduced evidence showing that in 1970 whites held all four positions on the Board's central office staff and that the Board filled each vacancy occurring since 1970 with a white applicant. The NEA argues that, based on this statistical proof, the district court should have entered an order requiring the Board to affirmatively recruit and employ qualified black applicants for the athletic coaching and central office staffs until the racial composition of these staffs approximates that of the student population in the public school system.

The internal affairs of a local school system should be administered by its elected or appointed authorities, not by federal courts. See Megill v. Board of Regents, 541 F.2d 1073, 1077 (5th Cir. 1976); Blunt v. Marion County School Board, 515 F.2d 951, 956 (5th Cir. 1975). See generally Callahan v. Price, 505 F.2d 83, 88 (5th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 927, 96 S.Ct. 273, 46 L.Ed.2d 254 (1975); Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 490 F.2d 458, 460 (5th Cir. 1974); Ferguson v. Thomas, 430 F.2d 852, 858 (5th Cir. 1970). However, where a local school authority discriminates unconstitutionally against an individual or a class of individuals, it becomes the court's duty to fashion appropriate relief.

Proof of an immediate past history of racial discrimination alone can be sufficient to shift to the local board of education the burden of justifying its employment decisions by clear and convincing evidence. See Davis v. Board of School Commissioners, 600 F.2d 470, 473 (5th Cir. 1979); Hereford v. Huntsville Board of Education, 574 F.2d 268, 270 (5th Cir. 1978); Barnes v. Jones County School District, 544 F.2d 804, 807 (5th Cir. 1977); Roper v. Effingham County Board of Education, 528 F.2d 1024, 1025 (5th Cir. 1976). Even where, as here, the system has been found now to be desegregated and unified, see note 1, supra, such history remains relevant evidence. A showing of discriminatory purpose is required to prove a prima facie case of discrimination under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983. See Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 97 S.Ct. 555, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977); Williams v. Dekalb County, 582 F.2d 2 (5th Cir. 1978). See generally Ramirez v. Sloss, 615 F.2d 163, 168 n.8 (5th Cir. 1980).

The statistical evidence presented by the NEA, when considered in light of the historical background of this litigation, proved a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination on the basis of race that, if unrebutted, would have supported a district court's grant of the requested relief. However, additional evidence presented at the district court hearing rebutted the prima facie case of employment discrimination and demonstrated conclusively that the lack of blacks hired since 1970 for positions on both the athletic coaching and the central office staffs resulted not from purposeful discrimination but solely from a lack of black applicants.

John S. Wood, the Superintendent of Education for Washington County, Alabama, testified that the Board in 1978 received the first application from a black for a head coaching position since 1970. The Board appointed the applicant, David Davis, to be head coach at McIntosh High School for the 1978-79 school year. Wood's testimony additionally disclosed the misleading nature of the statistical evidence presented by the NEA with respect to the athletic coaching staff. By focusing solely on those individuals hired since 1970 specifically as head or assistant athletic coaches, the statistical proof failed to reflect the true racial composition of the coaching staff. The evidence presented to the district court showed that in 1978 the staff contained a significant number of blacks who either were hired prior to 1970 or who, although hired for specific positions other than head or assistant coach, served as and received supplemental remuneration reserved for athletic coaches. Superintendent Wood testified that it was not until May 1978 when the Board received the first application from a black for a position on the central office staff. In the instant case, the district court properly declined to order the affirmative relief requested by the NEA because the plaintiff-intervenor failed to carry its burden of proving the requisite unconstitutional discrimination.

The district court correctly observed that the evidence fails to disclose "whether the lack of black applications resulted from a lack of qualified blacks in the area, or from a policy or practice on the Board's part in not advertising its openings to the general public." 456 F.Supp. at 1187. Concerned by the lack of black applicants for positions on these staffs, the district court noted that it would "insist that the Board adopt an appropriate advertisement policy to ensure that the most qualified candidates will apply" for positions in the Washington County public school system. The district court's opinion, however, stopped short of expressly requiring the Board to implement a policy of advertising employment opportunities to the general public. ³ The district court found and our review confirms that the record fails to indicate that the lack of advertising actually discriminated against blacks. ⁴ We cannot say that, based on the record before it, the district court erred by failing to order the additional affirmative relief requested by the NEA.

II. Individual Claims

The NEA advanced individual claims of employment discrimination on behalf of Warren Roberts, Cleophus Stephens, and Vera Breech, claiming (1) that the Board failed to appoint Roberts and Stephens as high school principals and failed to hire Breech as special education coordinator, (2) that the Board's actions resulted from a purposeful discrimination against blacks, and (3) that the Board's actions violated the individuals' rights secured by the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution and contravened the January 22, 1970, terminal order of desegregation. As such, the plaintiff-intervenor raised individual claims of employment discrimination cognizable under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983.

A. Roberts and Stephens

The district court rejected...