United States v. Texas Education Agency
| Decision Date | 18 August 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 30368.,30368. |
| Citation | 431 F.2d 1313 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Eldon B. Mahon, U. S. Atty., Dallas, Tex., David D. Gregory, Joseph B. Scott, Civil Rights Div., U. S. Dept. of Justice, Jerris Leonard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellant.
Crawford C. Martin, Atty. Gen. of Texas, Austin, Tex., for appellees.
Before WISDOM, COLEMAN, and SIMPSON, Circuit Judges.
We are asked to grant pendente lite relief or in the alternative to enter summary reversal in this district-wide school desegregation case appealed here from the Northern District of Texas. The defendants are the Texas Education Agency and six named school districts: Ferris, Garland, Lubbock, Richardson, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls Independent School Districts.
This case is similar to cases filed in numerous districts of this Circuit by the United States Department of Justice in an effort to secure before the start of the 1970-71 school year uniform compliance with Alexander v. Holmes County Bd. of Ed., 1969, 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed.2d 19, Carter v. West Feliciana Parish, 1970, 396 U.S. 290, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477, and Singleton v. Jackson, 5 Cir. 1970 (En Banc) 419 F.2d 1211, reversed (as to timing) sub nom. Carter v. West Feliciana. The government instituted the first case of this type United States v. Georgia, C.A. 19,772 in the Northern District of Georgia, December 15, 1969. Suits have recently been filed in district courts of the following districts of this Circuit: Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi; Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Florida; and the Eastern, Western, and Southern Districts of Texas. Similar suits have also been filed in several districts in the Fourth and Eighth Circuits. The relief uniformly sought is similar to that sought here.
We are informed that the following defendant school districts will begin classes for the 1970-71 school year on the following respective dates:
Ferris ISD August 20, 1970
Garland ISD August 27, 1970
Lubbock ISD August 26, 1970
Richland ISD August 25, 1970
San Angelo ISD August 24, 1970
Wichita Falls ISD August 31, 1970
The complaint alleged:
With the knowledge and consent of the Texas Education Agency, its agents and officers, each of the defendant school districts, as instrumentalities of the State of Texas, has traditionally operated and continues to operate a dual school system based on race. The defendant school districts traditionally have assigned students and faculty to schools in accordance with an official state policy requiring racial segregation in the public schools of Texas resulting in the assignment of white students and faculty and black students and faculty to separate schools. These districts presently assign students to these public schools on the basis of plans which have resulted in the continued operation of their schools as dual school systems based on race.
The complaint further alleged that the Lubbock and San Angelo districts "are discriminating against Mexican-American students by assigning Mexican-American students to schools on the basis of their ethnic origin" and that such schools "are attended almost exclusively by Mexican-American and Negro students." The complaint requested that the defendants be enjoined from discriminating on the basis of race and ethnic origin and prayed "that the defendant school districts be ordered forthwith to adopt and implement desegregation plans * * * prior to the commencement of the 1970-71 school year." A certificate of the Attorney General as required by 42 U.S.C. § 2000c-6 is attached to the complaint.
As to the Lubbock and Wichita Falls districts for which school desegregation plans had been prepared and recommended to the district by the United States...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia
...for purposes of relief, that is to aid in preparing desegregation plans in cooperation with local agencies. United States v. Texas Education Agency, 431 F.2d 1313 (5th Cir. 1970). Our own Court of Appeals has stated that, upon a proper showing of the existence of continuing de jure segregat......
-
Jones v. Diamond
...of section 1292. Gray Line Motor Tours, Inc. v. City of New Orleans, 5 Cir. 1974, 498 F.2d 293, 296; United States v. Texas Education Agency, 5 Cir. 1970, 431 F.2d 1313, 1315. Cf. Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 1974, 417 U.S. 156, 171, 94 S.Ct. 2140, 2149, 40 L.Ed.2d 732, 744-45. In Gray Li......
- United States v. Jackson, 29445.
- United States v. Poczik, Crim. No. 1971-189.