McDaniel v. Board of Public Instruction, Civ. No. 70.

• Decision Date: 03 July 1941
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 70.
• Citation: 39 F. Supp. 638
• Parties: McDANIEL v. BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLA., et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Florida

39 F. Supp. 638

McDANIEL v. BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLA., et al.

Civ. No. 70.

District Court, N. D. Florida, Pensacola Division.

July 3, 1941.

McGill & McGill, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Thurgood Marshall, of New York City, for plaintiff.

Philip D. Beall, Jr., of Pensacola, Fla., Keen & Allen and J. Velma Keen, all of Tallahassee, Fla., and Lamar Sarra, of Tampa, Fla., for defendants.

LONG, District Judge.

This cause is before the court upon motion of defendants to dismiss the action because the complaint fails to state a claim against the defendants or either of them upon which relief can be granted. The complaint is to obtain a declaratory judgment declaring that the policy of the defendants in adopting and enforcing a salary schedule fixing the salaries of the plaintiff and other negro teachers and principals at a rate lower than that paid to white teachers and principals of equal qualifications and experience performing essentially the same services, solely because of their race and color, is a denial of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and, that an injunction issue restraining the defendants from paying to plaintiff or any other colored teacher or principal employed by them a less salary than they pay any white teacher or principal employed by them with equal qualifications, certification, and experience, and filling a similar position in the public schools of Escambia County.

The plaintiff Vernon McDaniel, who brings the suit on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, is colored, a person of African descent and of negro blood. He is a regular principal of a public school in Escambia County maintained and operated by the Board of Public Instruction of Escambia County.

This is a class action authorized by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c, and the character of the rights involved are of common and general interest to the members of the class represented by the plaintiff.

The first question to be determined is whether from the pleading an unconstitutional discrimination is shown in fixing salaries of the negro school teachers by the defendants.

Second, defendants contend that the plaintiff McDaniel being a principal of one of the high schools does not represent a class other than "principals".

The third contention of defendants is that the act of the defendants is not violative of the Fourteenth Amendment because the State Constitution provides for a county public school system, and that if there is any discrimination between the salaries paid to white and colored teachers it is the act of the county school system and not of the state.

The allegations of the complaint as to the question of discrimination, and which must be taken as true on a motion to dismiss, are as follows:

"7. All teachers and principals in Florida, including plaintiff and others similarly situated are required to hold teaching certificates in full force in accordance with the rules of certification established by the State Board of Education (Florida Compiled General Laws, Section 630). Negro and white teachers and principals alike must meet the same requirements to receive teachers' certificates.

"9. Defendants over a long period of years have consistently pursued and maintained and are now pursuing and maintaining the policy, custom, and usage of paying Negro teachers and principals in the public schools of Escambia County less salary than white teachers and principals in said public school system possessing the same professional qualifications, certificates and experience, exercising the same duties and performing the same services as Negro teachers and principals. Such discrimination is being practiced against the plaintiffs and all other Negro teachers and principals in Escambia County, and is based solely upon their race or color.

"11. Plaintiff, Vernon McDaniel, has been employed as a regular teacher in Escambia County, Florida, and as a principal in the public schools of said County for more than thirteen (13) years, and therefore, according to the method of evaluating experience by defendants, has reached his maximum in experience. Plaintiff is a graduate of Bishop College for Negroes at Marshall, Texas, with the degree of Bachelor of Science and holds a Life Graduate State Certificate issued to him by the State Board of Education of the State of Florida, after an examination as provided by law for teachers in the public schools of Escambia County, Florida. Plaintiff has met the same requirements as those exacted of all other teachers in the public schools of Escambia County, white as well as Negro, and he exercises the same duties and performs services substantially equivalent to those performed by other holders of these certificates, white as well as Negro, yet all white principals in Escambia County who hold said certificates with equal and less experience receive salaries much larger than the salary paid the plaintiff.

"12. White high school principals in the public schools of Escambia County are paid a minimum salary of $200 a month while plaintiff is now receiving $165 a month as salary, and solely because of the practice, usage and custom complained of in paragraph 9, of this complaint, and by the operation of the discriminatory salary schedules described in paragraph 13 and 14 of this complaint the plaintiff and others of the class on whose behalf he sues have been, are, and unless relief shall be granted by this Honorable Court as hereinafter prayed, will continue to be denied, solely by reason of race and color, the opportunity to receive a higher salary equal to that paid to any white teachers or principals similarly situated.

"13. Pursuant to the policy, custom and usage set out in paragraph 10 of this complaint the defendants acting as agents and agencies of the State of Florida have established and maintained a salary schedule used by them to fix the amount of compensation for teachers and principals in the public schools of Escambia County which discriminates against plaintiff and others of the class on whose behalf he sues solely because of their race or color. All teachers and principals in the public schools of Escambia County, including the plaintiff, are being...