Paige v. Gray
| Decision Date | 16 August 1975 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 74-50-Alb,75-27-Alb. |
| Citation | 399 F. Supp. 459 |
| Parties | Fanny PAIGE et al., Plaintiffs, v. James GRAY, Mayor of the City of Albany, Georgia, et al., Defendants. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF ALBANY et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia |
Mary M. Young, Alfred O. Bragg, III, William Joseph Baird, Jr., Albany, Ga., David F. Walbert, Atlanta, Ga., Edward H. Levi, Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice Washington, D. C., Ronald T. Knight, U. S. Atty., Macon, Ga., Michael Johnson, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights, Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs.
James V. Davis, Edmund A. Landau, Albany, Ga., for defendants.
Fanny Paige, Erma Moss, Mary Young and Grady Caldwell, individually and as representatives of a class1 of all black citizens of the City of Albany entitled to vote therein, by their complaint filed December 9, 1974, seek to invalidate the present at-large system of electing five city commissioners of the City of Albany, Georgia, who with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem of said city constitute all the elected officials of the board of city commissioners, Albany's governing body. The at-large system herein attacked was created by a 1947 act of the legislature of this state. 1947 Ga.Laws p. 725 (approved March 26, 1947). Preceding the enactment of said 1947 law the five city commissioners who are presently elected at-large were elected one from each of the five wards of the city by just the respective voters of each ward. 1923 Ga.Laws p. 374. The other two commissioners at least since 1923 have been elected at-large and since the enactment of 1937 Ga.Laws p. 1476 have been designated2 as Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. They allege that "this voting arrangement operates to deprive plaintiffs of the rights, liberties and immunities secured to them by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution." Complaint, para. 1.
The United States on July 21, 1975, filed its separate complaint also seeking to invalidate said at-large election system on constitutional grounds. Both actions were consolidated by the court on July 25, 1975, pursuant to Rule 42, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and motions for preliminary injunctive relief were set down to be heard on Wednesday, August 6, 1975.
The defendants by their responsive pleadings denied that Albany's at-large system violates any of plaintiffs' constitutional rights as secured to them under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and further asserted that the 1947 at-large system since its enactment has not been used invidiously to cancel out or minimize the voting strength of the black voters of Albany thereby making it constitutional under the equal protection tests set forth by the Supreme Court in White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 37 L.Ed.2d 314 (1973).
On Wednesday, August 6 and Thursday, August 7, 1975, an evidentiary hearing was held. After hearing the evidence and the argument of counsel the court issued its preliminary injunction because of its opinion that said 1947 act had the inevitable effect of abridging the right of Negro citizens of Albany to vote and is therefore violative of their rights under the Fifteenth Amendment as it was interpreted by the Supreme Court in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339, 81 S.Ct. 125, 5 L.Ed.2d 110 (1960). A further hearing was set for Thursday, August 14 to receive suggested plans from each of the parties for (a) conducting an election this year under Albany's election scheme as it existed before the enactment of the 1947 act believed by this court to be unconstitutional and (b) redrawing the boundary lines of Albany's five wards to comply with the "one-man, one-vote" rule. Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964). By that preliminary injunction the parties and all persons encompassed by Rule 65, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, were enjoined from conducting any elections based on said 1947 act. That included primary elections to be held on Tuesday, August 12, and a special election of the same date to fill a commission vacancy created by a recent resignation of a commissioner whose term would not have expired until January 1977.
Upon inquiry each party agreed that it would now be appropriate for the court to issue its permanent injunction. Plans having been presented and the evidence and contentions of the parties having been carefully considered, this constitutes the court's permanent injunction in the form required by Rule 65, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The stipulated facts show that prior to 1946 black citizens were not permitted to vote in Democratic Party primary elections conducted to nominate candidates for the offices of commissioner, mayor and mayor pro tem of the City of Albany. On March 6, 1946, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the case of Chapman v. King, 154 F.2d 460, cert. denied, April 1, 1946, 327 U.S. 800, 66 S.Ct. 905, 90 L.Ed. 1025, held that the Democratic Primary as conducted in Georgia is a part of the public election machinery as a result of which the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which forbids denying or abridging the right of citizens to vote on account of race or color, prohibits the exclusion of Negro voters from Georgia's Democratic Primary. The primary elections conducted thereafter by the Democratic Party in 1946 were the first primary elections in which Negro citizens were allowed to vote.
The Democratic primary election for the City of Albany was held on November 18, 1946, for the commissioners representing the second, third and fifth wards. The stipulated facts show that 3,548 persons were registered to vote in that election and that by race and ward they were as follows:
Race Second Ward Third Ward Fifth Ward
White 464 791 913
Black 309 61 1010
Blacks thus constituted more than a majority of the registered voters in the Fifth Ward.
The stipulated facts further show that in the Fifth Ward there were two whites candidates running for the nomination. Of the 1,923 voters, 353 white citizens voted and 448 Negro citizens voted — a total of 791 — at what were then3 segregated polling places. Broken down by race those 791 votes were cast as follows:
Candidates
Edward J. Davis R. F. Armstrong
White voters 156 197
Black voters 384 64
___ ___
Total 540 261
The overwhelming majority of black voters cast their votes for Edward J. Davis and a substantial majority of white voters cast their votes for R. F. Armstrong. Edward J. Davis was elected. The impact of the votes of the new black voters is readily apparent from these figures.
The legislature of this state met in 1947. By March 26 the act in question had been passed by the legislature and approved by the governor. As to the election of Albany's city officials it states:
Preceding the passage of this 1947 act, Albany's city charter of 1923 (1923 Ga.Laws p. 374), 1937 Ga.Laws p. 1476 as to the election of Albany's city officials had provided:
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