United States v. School Dist. of Omaha, State of Nebraska

• Decision Date: 26 October 1973
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 73-0-320.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. The SCHOOL DISTRICT OF OMAHA, STATE OF NEBRASKA et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Nebraska

367 F. Supp. 179

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. The SCHOOL DISTRICT OF OMAHA, STATE OF NEBRASKA et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 73-0-320.

United States District Court, D. Nebraska.

October 26, 1973.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Brian K. Landsberg and Ross L. Connealy, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Baird, Holm, McEachen, Pedersen, Hamann & Haggart, Omaha, Neb., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SCHATZ, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the motion of plaintiff for a preliminary injunction pursuant to Rule 65, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. A full evidentiary hearing was held on this motion with all parties given ample opportunity to present their positions to this Court, the hearing having been completed on August 30, 1973.

The present prayer for injunctive relief stems from a complaint filed in this Court by the United States Department of Justice on August 10, 1973, alleging a cause under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-6(a) and (b), and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The complaint alleges that the named defendants have engaged in racial discrimination in the operation of the Omaha Public School System, located in Douglas and Sarpy Counties, Nebraska, and prays for broad equitable relief enjoining defendants from discriminating on the basis of race or color in the operation of the Omaha Public School System and requiring the school system to adopt and implement a plan to eliminate the alleged discriminatory practices so as to establish a unitary public school system in Omaha in compliance with the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This Court has jurisdiction over the subject matter of this action under 28 U.S.C. § 1345 and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-6(a) and (b).

The present motion for a preliminary injunction prays that this Court prohibit the opening of Martin Luther King Middle School (located in the Omaha School District) on September 4, 1973, as anything other than an integrated school, and further prays that the transfer policy presently in effect in the Omaha Public School System be enjoined from operating pending a full trial on the merits of this matter.

FINDINGS OF FACT

The defendant School District of Omaha (district) has within its boundaries the City of Omaha and part of Sarpy County, Nebraska. Millard and Ralston public schools and District 66 are excluded. The school district operates 73 elementary schools, 12 junior high schools, and 8 senior high schools within its boundaries. For the 1972-73 school year, 63,125 students were enrolled in the district. Of these, 49,383 were white; 12,220 were black; and 1,521 Spanish surnamed American, American Indian and Oriental. The percentage of black students was 19.4 per cent.

As to the racial composition broken down into the various school levels, the high schools were 17.48 per cent black; the junior highs were 16.51 per cent black in 1972-73; and the elementary schools were 2.12 per cent black in 1972-73. The black population in the City of Omaha and the number of black school-age children has increased noticeably since 1950. The Negro population in 1940 was 5.4 per cent; in 1950, 6 per cent and in 1968, 8.3 per cent, of the total population in Omaha. Between 1950 and 1960 the number of school-age black children increased 110 per cent. In 1950, 52 per cent of the black people lived in three census tracts in the eastern portion of Omaha which were bounded by 24th Street to 30th Street as the east and west boundaries and Cummings Street and Bedford Street as the north-south boundaries. In 1960 these same three tracts held less than 30 per cent of the total black population and the neighboring census tracts 7, 8, 9, 12 and 13A, all were more than 50 per cent Negro, and tracts 14 and 52 had 46 to 37 per cent black population respectively. Reference to the census tracts on page 36 of defendants' Exhibit 51 shows that the movement between 1950 and 1960 was north and somewhat west of what it had been in 1950.

SEGREGATION

As to the senior high schools, Omaha Technical High School, located in the approximate center of the school district, and towards the eastern portion thereof, enrolled a student body of 94.68 per cent black during 1972-73. North High, located north of the Technical attendance boundaries, was 31.13 per cent black in 1972-73 and Central High, immediately east of Tech High, had 30.36 per cent black in the school year. Three of the high schools (Bryan, located in the southeastern portion of the school district, Burke High, located in the west central portion of the school district, and Northwest, located in that general area of the school district) all enrolled less than 10 black students during the 1972-73 school year which amounted to less than 1 per cent of their student enrollment.

As to the junior high schools, Horace Mann Junior High, whose attendance boundaries are generally speaking within the area of Omaha Technical High School, enrolled 97.95 per cent black students in 1972-73. Monroe Junior High, located to the east of Mann and to the immediate northwest of Tech High School attendance boundaries, enrolled 40.99 per cent black students in 1972-73. Four of the junior high schools, Bancroft, Beveridge, Bryan and Marrs, enrolled ten or less black students in 1972-73, which were less than 2 per cent of their student enrollments. Bancroft and Marrs attendance boundaries are in the southern portion of the district in relation to Mann and Monroe and somewhat east therein in certain portions. Bryan is in the southernmost portion of the district and its area is the same as that of Bryan High School. Beveridge Junior High is located in the western part of the school district and its boundaries correspond with the southern portion of Burke High School.

Of the elementary schools, eleven of the seventy-three were over 75 per cent black and 3 of those eleven were over 90 per cent black. Thirty of the elementary schools had less than one per cent and of those thirty, twelve had no black students enrolled during the 1972-73 school year. The elementary schools with the greater percentage of black students were all located in east central and northeast portion of the Omaha School District and the City of Omaha. Those elementary schools that had the least percentage of black students in 1972-73 were located primarily in the western and southern parts of the District in the City of Omaha.

ASSIGNMENT OF BLACK FACULTY

a) Elementary schools

In the school year 1962-63, there were 55 black elementary teachers assigned to majority black elementary schools.¹ There were only 56 black elementary faculty members in the district. Clifton Hill, which along with Franklin, is an elementary school in an attendance zone which will feed into the Martin Luther King Middle School (King), turned majority black between 1966-67 and 1967-68. The first black faculty was assigned to that school in 1968-69. Franklin turned majority black in 1966-67 and its first black faculty member was assigned in 1965-66 when Franklin was 44 per cent black.

b) Junior high schools

In 1964-65 there were 21 black faculty members at the junior high level. Nineteen were assigned to Horace Mann Junior High, which was 97 per cent black, and the other two were assigned to Tech Junior High which was 61 per cent black. In 1967-68, there were 32 black teachers in the junior high schools, 25 of which were assigned to Horace Mann (98 per cent black), 5 to Tech Junior High (89 per cent black), and 2 to Monroe Junior High (80 per cent black). In the 1971-72 school year there were 56 total black faculty members at the junior high school level, 27 of which went to Mann (98 per cent black), and 18 of which were assigned to Tech Junior High (91 per cent black).

c) High schools

The first black faculty at the high school level was assigned in 1963-64. During that year Technical High School turned majority black and 2 black faculty members out of the total of 3 were assigned to that high school. In 1963-64, the other faculty member was assigned to North High (9 per cent black). Central High (13 per cent black) had no black faculty members.

In 1972-73, 44 of the 49 black faculty members in the high school level were assigned to Tech (95 per cent black), Central (30 per cent black) and North (31 per cent black).

It would thus appear that there has been in the district an assignment of black faculty to those schools which have the greater amounts and/or majority of black students in their student bodies. (See also Government Exhibit No. 1.)

BUILDING SITES AND FEEDER ZONES

a) Site location

The planning for the new Martin Luther King Middle School (King), which is to open in the present school year 1973-74, was started by the school board some six years ago and the final decision to construct King was made approximately two years ago. King is located within the boundaries of the Clifton Hill elementary zone.²

The stated purpose of the King middle school (a relatively new idea in the district encompassing the fifth, sixth and seventh grades) was to relieve overcrowding at Clifton Hill Elementary and Franklin Elementary schools and to do away with the use of portables and cottages at those schools.³

Prior to the construction of King, there is evidence that some opposition to its location was communicated to the Omaha School Board. Mr. Damian D. Lacroix, a member of the Board of Education during 1969-70, testified that he had some reservations as to its construction because King was located in such a manner that the eastern boundary of the school is a railroad track and that it would be predominantly black. Mr. Lacroix submitted a resolution in February, 1970, which is marked as Exhibit 32, which inter alia analyzed the segregation patterns in the School District and suggested that some desegregative action be taken. In August, 1970, the district responded to...