Meredith v. Fair, No. 19475.

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit
• Writing for the Court: BROWN and WISDOM, Circuit , and DeVANE
• Citation: 305 F.2d 343
• Parties: James H. MEREDITH, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, Appellant, v. Charles Dickson FAIR, President of the Board of Trustees of the State Institutions of Higher Learning, et al., Appellees.
• Decision Date: 08 October 1962
• Docket Number: No. 19475.

305 F.2d 343 (1962)

James H. MEREDITH, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, Appellant,
v.
Charles Dickson FAIR, President of the Board of Trustees of the State Institutions of Higher Learning, et al., Appellees.

No. 19475.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

June 25, 1962.

Certiorari Denied October 8, 1962.

305 F.2d 344

C. B. Motley, New York City, R. Jess Brown, Vicksburg, Miss., Jack Greenberg, Derrick A. Bell, Jr., New York City, for appellant.

Chas. Clark, Jackson, Miss., Dugas Shands, Asst. Atty. Gen., Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., Edward L. Cates, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for appellees.

Before BROWN and WISDOM, Circuit Judges, and DeVANE, District Judge.

Certiorari Denied October 8, 1962. See 83 S.Ct. 49.

WISDOM, Circuit Judge.

The Meredith matter is before us again. This time the appeal is from a final judgment after a trial on the merits. The judgment denies James A. Meredith, a Mississippi negro in search of an education, an injunction to secure his admission to the University of Mississippi. We reverse with directions that the injunction be issued.

A full review of the record leads the Court inescapably to the conclusion that from the moment the defendants discovered Meredith was a Negro they engaged in a carefully calculated campaign of delay, harassment, and masterly inactivity. It was a defense designed to discourage and to defeat by evasive tactics which would have been a credit to Quintus Fabius Maximus.

After the trial on the merits, the district judge found "as a fact, that the University is not a racially segregated institution". He found that the state has no policy of segregation. He did find that segregation was the custom before Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 was decided in May 1954. But, he held, "there is no custom or policy now, nor was there any at the time of the plaintiff's application, which excluded Negroes from entering the University." This about-face in policy, news of which may startle some people in Mississippi, could have been accomplished only by telepathic communication among the University's administrators, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning. As the trial judge pointed out in his opinion, "nearly every member of the Board of Trustees, testified unequivocally and definitely that at no time had the question of race of a party ever been discussed at a meeting of the Board of Trustees or at any other place and that so far as the Board of Trustees was concerned, all policies and regulations were adopted and followed without regard to race, creed or color."

In our previous opinion in this case, 5 Cir., 298 F.2d 696, on the appeal from a denial of the preliminary injunction, D.C., 199 F.Supp. 754, it seemed to us that "what everybody knows the court

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must know."¹ We took "judicial notice that the state of Mississippi maintains a policy of segregation in its schools and colleges."² (We find nothing now in this case reaching the dignity of proof to make us think we were wrong to take judicial notice of Mississippi's policy of segregation.) Nevertheless, on that appeal, giving the University the benefit of the doubt, it seemed to us that a trial on the merits would be in the interest of justice: for reasons not attributable to the endeavors or competency of counsel, it was impossible to determine from the record whether there were valid, nondiscriminatory grounds for the University's refusing Meredith's admission.³

The district judge found no reason in the trial on the merits to change his earlier findings of fact and conclusions of law. He held that the evidence "shows clearly that there was no denial of admission because of his race and color." In reaching this conclusion the trial judge adopted the findings of fact in his earlier opinion on the motion for a preliminary injunction. It is necessary therefore to review the case from the beginning. Such whole-case review has the advantage of enabling the Court to consider the various contentions in context and to determine whether the pieces fit together to make a pattern of unlawful discrimination.

I.

James H. Meredith was born in 1933 near Koscuisko, in Attala County, one of the rural counties in Mississippi. After graduating from high school in 1950 he volunteered for service in the United States Air Forces. When his hitch was over he reenlisted. In the Air Forces he rose to the rank of staff sergeant. He was discharged in the summer of 1960. He was never in trouble with civilian or military authorities. Meredith received an honorable discharge and the Good Conduct Medal.

Meredith got his education the hard way. Some time in 1953 he decided to improve himself. He turned first to "Fundamentals of Speech" and "Composition and Literature", extension courses of the University of Kansas. In 1954 he enrolled in a course in "Government of the United States" at Washburn University in Topeka. He received the grade of "C" in each of these subjects. From 1954 to 1960 he took advantage of college level courses of the United States Armed Forces Institute, for which Jackson State College credited him with 57 quarter hours credit.⁴ Meredith's most fruitful years, educationally, were the two years

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he spent in Japan just before leaving the service. He attended the Far East Division of the University of Maryland. He tackled difficult courses, such as "Russian", and he carried a heavy schedule. In 1958-1959 he had 5 "B's"; in 1959-1960 he had 3 "B's", 3 "A's", and 1 "F". The University of Maryland credited him with thirty-four semester hours for twelve courses

Promptly after returning home, Meredith registered at Jackson State College, a "Negro" college in Hinds County, Mississippi. He moved to Jackson with his wife and child. At Jackson State his grades were almost all "A's" and "B's". In January 1961 he applied for admission to the University of Mississippi. When asked on the witness stand why he wished to transfer, he said Jackson State was "substandard".

These facts raise a doubt as to the defendants' good faith in asserting that Meredith was not in good faith in applying for admission to the University of Mississippi. That Meredith's transfer would mean the loss of credits and possibly the loss of some G.I. benefits, that he was in his late twenties, that he might find the University of Mississippi considerably more difficult than Jackson State College, demonstrate his perseverance and fit in with the character of a man who is having a hard time getting a college education but is willing to pay the price exacted of a Negro for admission to the University of Mississippi.

II.

The defendants' Fabian policy of planned discouragement and discrimination by delay is evident from the correspondence between Meredith and the University.

Some time in January 1961 Meredith wrote the Registrar for application forms. He received a prompt reply thanking him for his interest and enclosing the forms. January 31 he wrote the Registrar, enclosing the executed forms. In this letter Meredith expressly informed the University that he was a Negro. This was not a gesture of defiance — the forms require a photograph and an indication of race — but a predicate for pointing out that although he could not furnish the names of alumni who resided in his county and had known him for at least two years, he was submitting certificates regarding his moral character from Negro citizens who had known him in the county of his birthplace. As is apparent from the letter,⁵ Meredith was "hopeful that the complications would

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be as few as possible." We read this letter as showing no chip on the shoulder and no evidence of such abnormal concern as to support the defendants' contention that from the start Meredith's letters indicate he was "belligerent", a "trouble-maker", and had psychological problems. We think it not unreasonable for a Negro to have some concern over his reception on the "Ole Miss" campus

February 4, 1961, two days before registration began for the second semester, the Registrar telegraphed Meredith:

"For your information and guidance it has been found necessary to discontinue consideration of all applications for admission or registration for the second semester which were received after January 25, 1961. Your application was received subsequent to such date and thus we must advise you not to appear for registration."

In his holding on the preliminary injunction, the trial judge found as a fact that this first refusal of admissions was a proper refusal because of "overcrowded conditions".⁶ In February 1961, however, there were only 2500 to 2600 male students on the campus. As of September 1961, as the Director of Student Personnel testified, there were about 3000 male students on the campus.

February 20 Meredith wrote the Registrar requesting that his application be treated as a continuing application for admission during the summer session. He called attention to his transcripts having been forwarded from the universities he attended. He concluded, "Again, I would like to express my gratitude for the respectable and humane manner in which you are handling this matter and I am very hopeful that this procedure will continue." The next day his room deposit of ten dollars was returned.

February 23 Meredith returned the ten dollars, explaining that he had requested his application be considered for the summer session. After waiting a month for an answer Meredith wrote the Registrar again. This time he requested that his application be considered as a continuing one for the summer session and for the fall session. He inquired whether his transcripts had been received and whether there were "any further prerequisites to admission". After waiting eight days for an answer, and apparently thoroughly alarmed by eloquent silence from the University, Meredith again wrote the Registrar. It is the letter of...