Mills v. Lowndes

• Citation: 26 F. Supp. 792
• Decision Date: 01 March 1939
• Docket Number: No. 56.,56.
• Parties: MILLS v. LOWNDES et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

26 F. Supp. 792

MILLS v. LOWNDES et al.

No. 56.

District Court, D. Maryland.

March 1, 1939.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Thurgood Marshall, of Baltimore, Md., and Charles H. Houston, Leon Ransom Edward P. Lovett, all of Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

William C. Walsh, Atty. Gen., and Charles T. LeViness, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendants.

CHESNUT, District Judge.

The object of this action is to accomplish, if possible, an equalization of the salaries paid to white and colored teachers in the public schools of Maryland. The plaintiff is a colored school teacher who is employed and paid by the County School Board of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. His complaint alleges that for many years past in this State only white teachers are employed to teach in schools for white children and only colored teachers in the schools for colored children; and that in most of the Counties of the State, including Anne Arundel County, the salaries paid colored teachers in colored schools are materially less than the amounts paid white teachers in white schools although having equal professional qualifications. He calls attention to a Maryland statute which provides the minimum scale of salaries for white teachers, graduated to professional qualifications and years of experience, and a separate statute providing a lower minimum for teachers in colored schools; and alleges that in practical application colored school teachers are paid less than white teachers solely on account of their race and color. He contends that this constitutes an unconstitutional discrimination which is prohibited by the equal protection clause of section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, U.S.C.A.

To redress this grievance on behalf of himself and others of his race in the same class he has filed this suit, not against the County Board by which he is employed, but against the State Board of Education, the State Superintendent of Education and the Treasurer and Comptroller of the State, all general State officers. In Maryland since 1865 the County has been the unit for most local governmental functions including that of public education. The principal questions — and they are important ones — which arise in the case are (1) whether the statutes either on their face or in their practical application are contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) whether the plaintiff has a sufficient status to raise the question; (3) whether the relief prayed for, an injunction against the enforcement of the law or practice thereunder by the general state officers, can be maintained in the absence from the record of the local County Board as a defendant, and (4) if so, is the remedy by injunction, which is the only relief sought, proper in this case.¹

The defendants have appeared by the Attorney General of the State and moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it does not state a sufficient cause of action to justify the relief sought. Ordinarily it is not advisable to determine constitutional and procedural questions of such gravity without a full hearing on the facts (Borden's Farm Products Co. v. Baldwin, 293 U.S. 194, 211-213, 55 S.Ct. 187, 79 L.Ed. 281; Polk Co. v. Glover, 305 U.S. 5, 59 S.Ct. 15, 83 L.Ed. ___, Nov. 7, 1938); but the factual situation is very fully developed in the plaintiff's complaint and the case has been very fully argued by counsel, and in addition to the allegations of the complaint there has been developed in argument other facts and conditions which are not in dispute and which therefore may be taken as conceded in connection with the averments of the complaint. As it is apparent that both parties desire a prompt disposition of the case on its legal merits, I will therefore now proceed to state my conclusions arising on the motion to dismiss.

It is essential to a considered opinion on the questions presented to first have a precise understanding of the Maryland statutory scheme of elementary education. It is sufficient in this case to state the controlling fundamentals without the unimportant details. The State Constitution of 1867, Art. 8, § 1, provides: "The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall, by law, establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient system of free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation or otherwise, for their maintenance." The statutes of the State passed pursuant thereto and now in force are to be found in Article 77, of the Maryland Code of 1924, and supplement thereto of 1935, section 1 of which provides: "There shall be throughout the State of Maryland a general system of free public schools, according to the provisions of this article." Since 1865 it has been the uniform policy and practice of the State to provide separate schools for white and colored children. The governmental subdivisions of the State consist of twenty-three counties and Baltimore City. These sub-divisions are respectively made the units for providing and maintaining free public education. In each County and in Baltimore City there is a local Board of Education sometimes called School Commissioners, on whom the statutes confer the authority and the duty to provide and maintain the schools and, in conjunction with the County Commissioners, to raise the necessary public funds by taxation to pay the expenses thereof, supplemented to some extent by general state school funds. Successive statutes up to and including the one now in force provide that the salaries of teachers in the City and Counties shall be fixed by the Board of School Commissioners of the City and the several Counties. Section 3 of Article 77 provides that "educational matters affecting a County shall be under the control of a County Board of Education".² Sections 1 and 9 to 26, inclusive, also provide for and outline the duties of the State Board of Education for which the State Superintendent of Schools shall act as the chief executive officer. The State Board is authorized to determine the educational policy of the State, including the establishment of standards and determination and certification of the qualifications of teachers and conditions for the hygienic and sanitary construction of school buildings; but it has no power to select or employ or fix the salaries of the teachers, which function is committed solely to the County Boards.

The primary fund necessary for the maintenance of the schools in the several Counties and Baltimore City is raised by specific taxation of property in the City and Counties for that purpose but supplemental appropriations are made from state taxes levied for education, and distributed to the several Counties in accordance with section 204 of Art. 77.

The major portion of the State school funds are apportioned among the Counties on the basis of school census and aggregate days of attendance; but experience demonstrated that even with this State aid, many of the Counties, by reason of their comparatively low tax assessable basis, were unable to meet the minimum program of educational requirements, including the minimum salary schedule provided for by statute; and to enable these poorer counties to comply with this minimum program a special additional state fund was provided for the first time in 1922, called the Equalization Fund. It is with respect to the distribution of this fund to the several Counties that counsel for the plaintiff submit their principal contention for the maintenance of this suit without making the County Board of Education of Anne Arundel County a party hereto, and for the propriety of granting the injunctive relief asked for.

The nature and operation of this special fund is disclosed by Sec. 204 of Art. 77, as amended by the Act of 1933, Ch. 261, to be found in the 1935 Supp. to the Maryland Code. It is provided that from the general state school fund (when biennially appropriated by the General Assembly) the Comptroller shall distribute to certain Counties: "such special appropriations to be known as an Equalization Fund as may from time to time, be made by Budget Bill or Supplementary Appropriations Bill, to the county boards of education of certain counties to enable them to pay the minimum salaries prescribed in this Article for county superintendents, supervising teachers and helping teachers, high school and elementary school teachers, and teachers in colored schools * * *; provided, that said board of county commissioners of each of the several counties sharing in the Equalization Fund shall levy and collect an annual tax for the schools of not less than forty-seven (47) cents on each one hundred dollars ($100) of assessable property * * *; and provided, further, that the county board of education in each of the several counties sharing in the Equalization Fund shall expend no less than twenty-four per centum (24%) of the total budget, not including costs of transportation as authorized in this section, debt service and capital outlay, for purposes other than teachers' salaries."

The effect is that if the amount of County School taxes at the rate of forty-seven cents per one hundred dollars of assessable county property, together with the apportionments of the general school fund on the basis of census and school attendance, is not sufficient to meet the county school expenses, including the minimum salary schedules, then the deficiency therein to that extent shall be paid to such counties from the Equalization Fund.³ There is no restriction on the counties to fix salaries at rates higher than the minimum, and to pay them from an additional tax rate, and some of the Counties have equalized the salaries of all teachers of the same grade. Prior to 1904 there was no restriction on the absolute discretion of the County Boards in fixing the amount of salaries for teachers. By the Act of 1904, Ch. 584, § 53, $300 per year minimum was set for white teachers. For teachers in the colored schools a minimum of $210...