Smith v. Young Men's Christian Ass'n of Montgomery

• Decision Date: 20 July 1970
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 2883-N.
• Citation: 316 F. Supp. 899
• Parties: Vincent Leonard SMITH et al., Plaintiffs, v. The YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF MONTGOMERY, Inc., a non-profit Alabama Corporation, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

316 F. Supp. 899

Vincent Leonard SMITH et al., Plaintiffs, v. The YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF MONTGOMERY, Inc., a non-profit Alabama Corporation, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 2883-N.

United States District Court, M. D. Alabama, N. D.

July 20, 1970.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Morris S. Dees, Jr., and Fred Gray, Gray, Seay & Langford, Montgomery, Ala., for plaintiffs.

Roland Nachman, Steiner, Crum & Baker, and Oakley Melton, Jr., Montgomery, Ala., for defendants.

OPINION

JOHNSON, Chief Judge.

The individual plaintiffs, who bring this action for the benefit of themselves and other members of their class who are similarly situated, allege in their complaint that they were denied membership in defendants' summer day camp program solely because they are Negroes. They further contend that: (1) defendant Young Men's Christian Association (hereinafter referred to as YMCA), acting through its officers and employees, has engaged in and continues to engage in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination by fostering and maintaining segregated branches and by excluding Negroes from many of the organization's recreational and educational activities; and (2) defendants' discriminatory conduct violates the Constitution and laws of the United States. Plaintiffs seek a preliminary and a permanent injunction, prohibiting defendant YMCA from operating any of its branches or administering any of its programs in a racially discriminatory manner and ordering defendant to take whatever affirmative action is necessary to remedy the effects of its past discrimination.

This action is authorized under 42 U. S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000a et seq. The jurisdiction of this Court is invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4).

During the first week of June, 1969, plaintiffs, accompanied by their respective mothers, went to the Central branch of the YMCA to submit their completed application forms for membership in Camp Belser. Upon their arrival, they were referred to defendant Chandler, Executive Director of the YMCA. He refused to accept their completed applications, stating that he had no authority to accept applications from Negroes and that he would have to refer the matter to the YMCA's Board of Directors. Chandler then told them that they would be notified within ten days of the Board's decision.

On June 11, 1969, plaintiffs filed with this Court their complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief. Ten days later, on June 21, defendant Chandler notified the plaintiffs by registered mail that they had been accepted as members in Camp Belser. On September 30, 1969, a hearing was held on plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary and a permanent injunction. The case is now submitted upon this motion, the response thereto by the defendants, the pleadings, depositions, oral testimony of witnesses taken before the Court, the exhibits to said testimony and the briefs and arguments of the parties.

I BACKGROUND

Defendant YMCA of Montgomery, Inc., a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Alabama, offers a variety of recreational, spiritual and educational programs and activities. It presently operates five branches¹ in the greater Montgomery area—Central, South, East, Cleveland Avenue, Prattville—and has a total membership of approximately 18,000. The Association also operates a Camp branch, which includes the two YMCA camps, Camp Belser and Camp Rotary. Membership is open to the general public, the only qualification being that the applicant be of "good moral character" and in sympathy with the aims and purposes of the organization.

Of the four YMCA branches located within the city of Montgomery, three are totally segregated by race. The South and East branches, which serve predominately white neighborhoods, have a total of 8,000 members, none of whom is a Negro. The Central branch, serving an extensively racially-mixed section of the city, also has an all-white membership. The fourth branch, Cleveland Avenue, serves a predominately Negro area; it has approximately 2,000 members, all but a few of whom are Negroes.

The YMCA's other two branches, Prattville and the Camp branch, also have all-white memberships. The Prattville branch has approximately 3,000 members, none of whom is black. At the time this suit was filed, neither Camp Belser, the day camp to which plaintiffs applied for membership, nor Camp Rotary, the overnight camp, had ever had a Negro member.² Furthermore, there has never been a Negro on the YMCA Board of Directors, the governing body of the organization.³

Since most of the activities offered by a particular branch are available only to its own members, the overwhelming majority of activities offered by the YMCA are totally segregated by race. The swimming programs at the South, East, Central and Prattville branches, for example, are all-white, while the swimming program at Cleveland Avenue is all-black. Even those programs, moreover, which are publicized as being open to the YMCA's general membership are rarely integrated. The Alabama Youth Legislature, for example, which is purported to be open to all YMCA Hi-Y members, had its first Negro participant in 1969 even though the Cleveland Avenue branch has, for a number of years, had an active Hi-Y program.

The above-described situation is exacerbated by the fact that the YMCA is the only agency in the city, public or private, to offer many of these activities. This monopoly results in part from a cooperative agreement entered into by the City of Montgomery and the YMCA back in 1958. At that time, a "Montgomery Park and Recreation Department —YMCA Co-ordination Committee" was established to co-ordinate the facilities and programs of the YMCA with those of the City "in order to eliminate any conflict or duplication of efforts."

This "Co-ordination Committee" formulated a two-part plan which was adopted and implemented by the City and the YMCA. First, the Recreation Department and the YMCA were to co-ordinate their various athletic programs so that both agencies would not be offering similar programs for the same age bracket. The YMCA, for example, was to supervise most of the athletic programs for all elementary school children in the city, while the Recreation Department was to offer the same programs for the city's junior high school students. Furthermore, since the City did not own or operate any swimming pools, the YMCA, which was in the process of constructing several new pools, was to administer the City's entire swimming program. Second, the YMCA branches were to co-ordinate their club programs and informal education classes with those of the city community centers in their neighborhood areas. Whenever a YMCA branch and community center were situated in the same school district, a member of the branch YMCA Board was to meet on a regular basis with a member of the Community Center Council to insure a co-ordination of efforts. This plan, which was reviewed by the committee in 1959 and again in 1965, is still in effect today.⁴

II

The first question before the Court is whether the "case" and "controversy" requirement of Article III, Section 2 of the United States Constitution precludes it from deciding the merits of the case. Defendants argue that when plaintiffs received their notices of acceptance to Camp Belser, they were afforded all the relief to which they were entitled. Finding that this case is therefore moot as to the individual plaintiffs, defendants conclude that plaintiffs have no standing to attack an alleged practice of racial discrimination either on their own behalf or on behalf of the class they purport to represent. The Court finds these contentions to be wholly without merit.

Defendants, who originally refused to grant plaintiffs membership in Camp Belser, did not notify them of their acceptance until after this litigation had commenced. "Such actions in the face of litigation are equivocal in purpose, motive and permanence."⁵ This post-suit change of heart, which is even more suspect in light of plaintiffs' prima facie showing of a long-standing practice of racial discrimination, strongly militates against a finding of mootness.⁶

Even if the individual plaintiffs were no longer entitled to personal relief, the other members of the class would still have standing to maintain this action. The rights of the class cannot be subverted by the granting of such belated and equivocal relief as was afforded the individual plaintiffs.⁷ To allow the mandates of the Equal Protection Clause to be so easily circumvented would be for the Court to contribute actively to the alleged class discrimination.

III

Count One of plaintiffs' complaint, in which they allege that defendant YMCA, in operating its branches and administering its activities in a racially segregated manner, has violated their constitutional rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, is grounded on 42 U.S.C. § 1983.⁸ To be entitled to relief under this section of the 1871 Civil Rights Act, plaintiffs must show two things. First, they must prove that the defendant deprived them of a right secured by the "Constitution and laws" of the United States. Second, they must show that the defendant was acting `'`under color of law," that is, was acting "under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any State or Territory."⁹

Defendants acknowledge that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from operating its recreational and educational facilities on a segregated basis.¹⁰ They contend, however, that the YMCA's segregated branches and activities result not from purposeful discrimination but rather from residential patterns and the proclivity of both whites and Negroes to keep with members of their own race.¹¹ Defendants argue, in the alternative, that even if their conduct has been discriminatory, the...