Thomas v. St. Martin Parish School Board

• Decision Date: 02 September 1965
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 11314.
• Citation: 245 F. Supp. 601
• Parties: Dorothy Marie THOMAS et al. v. ST. MARTIN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana

245 F. Supp. 601

Dorothy Marie THOMAS et al. v. ST. MARTIN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD et al.

Civ. A. No. 11314.

United States District Court W. D. Louisiana, Lafayette Division.

September 2, 1965.

A. P. Tureaud, New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs.

Knowles M. Tucker, Dist. Atty., 16th Judicial Dist. of Louisiana, New Iberia, La., for defendants.

PUTNAM, District Judge.

Memorandum Opinion

The class action instituted by plaintiffs seeks to obtain desegregation of the public school system in the parish of St. Martin, Louisiana. The suit was filed on August 17, 1965. School registration in St. Martin Parish commenced on August 27, 1965, and at the time this memorandum is written the pupils enrolled in this system are attending classes.

Eight days after the filing of this suit, twelve days before the delays allowed by law for answering had elapsed, the attorneys representing defendants requested the Court to hold a pretrial conference at the earliest practicable date in view of the swift approach of the school term, the anticipated ruling of this Court in the light of our earlier decisions, and the jurisprudence prevailing in this area of the law, particularly as summarized in the recent decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the cases of Lockett et al. v. Board of Education, Muscogee County School District, Georgia, et al., 342 F.2d 225 (February 24, 1965), Singleton et al. v. Jackson Municipal School District, etc., et al., 348 F.2d 729, decided June 22, 1965, Price et al. v. Denison Independent School District et al., 348 F.2d 1010, decided July 2, 1965, United States v. Bossier Parish School Board et al., 349 F.2d 1020 decided August 17, 1965, Valley et al., United States of America Intervenor, v. Rapides Parish School Board et al., 349 F.2d 1022, decided August 17, 1965, none of which have yet been reported.

A conference was held between Court and counsel attended by the President of the defendant School Board and the Superintendent of schools for St. Martin Parish. After full discussion of all issues by counsel stipulations were reached which have been filed in the record, and on September 2nd, 1965, defendants filed additional pleadings to which is attached a proposed plan of pupil assignment adopted by the Board at its meeting held on August 31, 1965, which provides, among other things, for the abolition of all previously existing school zones and the adoption of a nondiscriminatory system of pupil assignment in the parish of St. Martin. As part of the pretrial stipulations it was agreed by all parties that this plan as now officially adopted and filed is acceptable as an alternative to the denial made in the answer and the primary prayer of defendants that plaintiffs' suit be denied and dismissed. The entire matter is submitted for decision on the face of the record.

On the basis of this record the Court finds that the defendant School Board has in the past maintained a bi-racial school system, that the plaintiffs and other members of their class have been affected by this system, and that they are entitled to the relief prayed for. There is, of course, only one answer under the law to such a situation: recognition of the constitutional rights of plaintiffs and all other members of their class by the desegregation of the St. Martin Parish public schools. There remains only the question of the method by which this shall be accomplished.

There is no doubt that the defendant officials in this case have approached the solution of this problem with the greatest concern for the welfare of all of the children involved in the operation of their school system, and with a good faith, conscientious desire to perform their duties in accordance with the law as enunciated in the legion of cases decided by the courts of the United States since the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954). The plan advanced by them is similar to the transfer and assignment system adopted in Iberia Parish, commented upon in our decision in the case of Henderson et al. v. Iberia Parish School Board, Civil Docket Western District of Louisiana, 245 F.Supp. 419, decided June 23, 1965. It calls for an immediate desegregation of all grades, based upon the proposition that request for transfers from one school to another may be made at any time during the school year. The Court was assured at the pretrial conference held therein that as to pupils registered for the fall of 1965, all of those who expressed a preference for assignment to a different school were advised that their applications could be made and would be held by the Board pending decision of this case, so that, for all intents and purposes, the plan is retroactive to the opening of school, 1965.

We emphasize that this case is one brought by private litigants under the jurisprudential rule to which we have made full and detailed reference in memorandum opinions rendered August 13th. supplemented August 23rd, in four consolidated cases in which motions had been filed by plaintiffs to accelerate the desegregation plans in the parishes of Lafayette, Evangeline, St. Landry and Acadia,¹ in which it was argued that the decision of the Court of Appeals in Singleton, supra, required application of the standards set by the Office of Education, United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, in all school desegregation matters. At that time this Court said:

"The basic plan in each case is patterned upon the procedures approved by this Court through the Honorable Edwin F. Hunter, Jr., in the Lake Charles Division, for the parish of Calcasieu and the City of Lake Charles. Thereafter, following Lockett standards as minimum requirements and leaving the number of grades to be included the first year to the discretion of the defendant boards, who, in our judgment, are better equipped to evaluate their respective administrative and school facilities than is the Court, or, with all due respect, HEW, uniform criteria have been established throughout the Western District of Louisiana. * * *" (Emphasis supplied.)

In the supplemental opinion we recognized that under the plain mandate of the Court of Appeals in the Bossier and Rapides Parish cases, supra, the rule of Lockett had been modified so that the minimum standards now required by our jurisprudence, as distinguished from HEW policies, demands desegregation of at least four grades for the fall term of 1965.

The wisdom of leaving the number of grades to be included in the plan to the discretion of the local School Board involved in each individual suit is, in the opinion of this Court, fully demonstrated by the action taken by defendants in the case now under consideration.

The injunction issued this day relieves the School Board of the burden of making a voluntary decision to desegregate the school system falling under its jurisdiction. They are now bound by this order and their duties are formally defined.² We have no doubt that these officials will conscientiously carry out their obligations, and that they will implement this plan to the best of their ability, consistent with local problems of an administrative nature. They have not shirked their responsibility, they have accepted it and they have gone far beyond the minimum requirements as established by the case law. Until it be demonstrated otherwise, the court considers that defendants will meet the obligations imposed upon them by virtue of their official status and our decree, and that freedom to choose the school to be attended by all pupils will be respected, weighed and judged in accordance with the criteria established, on a racially nondiscriminatory basis.

By way of vitalizing the jaundiced complexion of legal opinions in this field, the Court now takes judicial cognizance of the fact that St. Martin Parish is generally regarded as one of the centers of Acadian culture in the State of Louisiana. The parish seat, St. Martinville, is the site of the famed Evangeline Oak, in the shade of which is reputed to lie the grave of the heroine of Longfellow's poem, "Evangeline".³ The population is predominantly of French descent and the people of St. Martin Parish as well as other parishes in Southwestern Louisiana are indelibly imprinted with a double heritage and tradition of individual freedom: the vicious persecution visited upon their ancestors in Nova Scotia, and their adoption of this land, where the rule of law demands recognition of each individual's claim to basic human dignity. It is in this background that the results achieved in this case, and in other cases mentioned above in this opinion in the Lafayette and Opelousas Divisions,⁴ have been brought about by men of good will representing both races. The lasting solution of the complexities involved in the social problem of school desegregation must, of necessity, be met in this fashion, with mutual understanding and restraint.

Only the passage of time and the empirical knowledge following application of the desegregation process in the context of this history, will prove whether or not our assessment of these fundamental considerations is correct. The Court expresses confidence that the people will respond with the characteristic good sense and tolerance that has set this area apart from other sections of the nation.

The Court expresses gratitude to the attorneys representing plaintiffs and the attorneys representing defendants, as well as the school officials and others involved in this particular case, for the assistance and co-operation given to the Court at the pretrial conference and later actions taken by the parties.

DECREE

For written reasons this day assigned, it being stipulated that plaintiffs are members of the Negro race and residents of the parish of St. Martin, Louisiana, and this being a class action affecting all members of the class to which plaintiffs belong who are similarly situated, so numerous as...