United States v. Watson Chapel School District No. 24, 20699
| Decision Date | 11 August 1971 |
| Docket Number | 71-1180.,No. 20699,71-1175,20699 |
| Citation | 446 F.2d 933 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. WATSON CHAPEL SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 24 et al., Appellants. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. WATSON CHAPEL SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 24 et al., Appellants. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. COTTON PLANT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 et al., In re John Norman Warnock, Appellant. |
John Norman Warnock, Camden, Ark., and Clyde J. Watts, Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellants; Art Givens, Little Rock, Ark., of counsel.
W. H. Dillahunty, U. S. Atty., Little Rock, Ark., and Edward S. Christenbury, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., David L. Norman, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Brian K. Landsberg, Joseph D. Rich, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellee.
Before LAY, HEANEY and BRIGHT, Circuit Judges.
These appeals, consolidated for argument, involve (1) the propriety of the district court's order in requiring Watson Chapel School District No. 24 to implement a H.E.W. plan for a unitary school system; (2) the district court's order finding members of the school district guilty of civil contempt in failing to comply with the judgment of the court requiring implementation of that plan; and (3) the district court's order finding the attorney for the school district guilty of civil contempt and barring the attorney from future conduct in derogation of the court's decree.
We find no merit in the objections to the district court's order requiring implementation of the H.E.W. plan. We affirm the judgment in No. 20,699 and remand the cause for continuing jurisdiction of the district court. We find the appeal by the school board members from the court's finding of civil contempt moot and dismiss the appeal in No. 71-1175 for lack of jurisdiction. We likewise find the appeal by the board's attorney, John Warnock, as to the judgment of civil contempt moot and similarly dismiss the appeal in No. 71-1180 for lack of jurisdiction.
The appeal in No. 20,699 arises from a single complaint filed by the United States to require seven school districts in the State of Arkansas to adopt a unitary school system. The complaint was filed July 8, 1970, by John N. Mitchell as Attorney General of the United States, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2000c-6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Attached was the Attorney General's affidavit that complaints had been received from parents of minor children within the district that equal protection of the laws was being denied these children.
The record shows that the Watson Chapel District (located on the outskirts of Pine Bluff, Arkansas) covers 125 square miles. Over 50 percent of the students attending school in the district live within the city limits of Pine Bluff. In 1969-70 the district operated six schools. These schools had a total enrollment of 3,871 students. There were two high schools and four elementary schools. The Coleman High School and the Coleman Elementary School operated with 1,640 students, all black. In the remaining schools there were 96 black students and 2,135 white pupils. In the Watson Chapel High School there were 972 whites and 41 Negroes; in Owen Elementary there were 593 whites and 36 black pupils; in Edgewood Elementary there were 495 whites and 19 blacks; in Sulphur Springs Elementary, a rural school, there were 75 whites and no blacks. The few black students living in that area were bussed to the Coleman schools. The faculty was for practical purposes completely segregated.
The district court assumed jurisdiction and ordered the parties to work out a satisfactory plan. On July 24, 1970, the United States reported that the Watson Chapel School officials had failed to agree on a plan and that the representative of the Office of Education would submit a plan on or before July 31, 1970. This plan was filed. The plan came on for hearing before the district court on August 11. On that date the district court found that a dual school system was being operated in the Watson Chapel District and that the plan of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (H.E.W.) would "completely desegregate the district, but that the school district should be given an opportunity to develop a plan of their own to meet constitutional requirements." This plan was ordered to be filed no later than August 26, 1970.
The school district thereafter filed alternative plans. The first plan was a long range projection to raise five million dollars to build sometime in the future a central junior and senior high school complex. The second plan was simply a modified continuation of the previously rejected "freedom of choice" plan. This plan left 98 percent of the white students in the formerly white schools and 98 percent of the black students in the formerly black schools. No assignment of faculty or staff members was proposed. The district court rejected both plans.
On September 14, 1970, the district court ordered the partial implementation of the H.E.W. plan and enjoined the school district from operating a racially discriminatory dual school in Watson Chapel. Although the school semester was already under way the district court granted the school board until October 15 to work out an alternate recommendation to the H.E.W. plan that would be less burdensome and more satisfactory. On October 15, 1970, the school district responded that "there is no constitutional requirement for race mixing" and entered another formal objection to the H.E.W. plan. The school district supplemented their previously rejected proposal only by a suggested additional zoning to include a "proposed" housing area to be included in the zone occupied by the all black schools. The United States responded that few whites would ever live in the new area. Thereafter on November 17, 1970, the district court in rejecting the school board's last illusory effort wrote:
The final alternative plan submitted by H.E.W. on October 2, and accepted by the district court, restructured the district into a unified system reflecting the following racial changes.
Student
School Grade Enrollment
W B
Watson Chapel 9-12 613 486
Coleman Elem
and High 5-8 710 617
Owen Elem. 1-4 399 351
Edgewood Elem. 1-4 327 267
Sulphur Springs
Elem. 1-4 75 25
The district court fixed zone lines between the elementary schools. The court also required desegregation of faculty and other staff until "the ratio of Negro to white teachers in each school, and the ratio of other staff in each, are substantially the same as each such ratio is to the teachers and other staff, respectively, in the entire school system."
The complete plan included appropriate orders as to future school construction and site selection, reports and transportation to promote a nonracial school system. The school board filed notice of appeal on December 11, 1970.
On February 6, 1971, the district court entered an order finding the Board of Directors and Superintendent of Schools in civil contempt in wilfully failing to carry out the court's decree. The court allowed the board until February 11, 1971, to implement the plan or have sanction imposed. On February 11, 1971, the superintendent filed a report indicating substantial steps had been taken to implement the court's order of November 17, 1970. On the basis of this report the court entered an order on February 12 relieving the school board members and the superintendent of contempt penalties. However, at the same time the school board indicated that transportation facilities in the district had been temporarily suspended on the advice of counsel.
The court's order of November 17, 1970, had provided:
The court clarified this order on February 18, 1971, by decreeing:
A motion to stay or dismiss the supplemental order was filed by the school district on February 26, 1971. On March 2, 1971, the district court in a comprehensive order denied this request. The district court concluded:
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