Wade v. Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service

• Decision Date: 15 February 1974
• Docket Number: No. EC 70-29-K.,EC 70-29-K.
• Citation: 372 F. Supp. 126
• Parties: Charlie F. WADE et al., Plaintiffs, and United States of America et al., Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. MISSISSIPPI COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

372 F. Supp. 126

Charlie F. WADE et al., Plaintiffs and United States of America et al., Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. MISSISSIPPI COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE et al., Defendants.

No. EC 70-29-K.

United States District Court, N. D. Mississippi, E. D.

February 15, 1974.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Frank R. Parker, Jackson, Miss., Stephen P. Passek, Mary Planty, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs.

William A. Allain, Charles A. Marx, Asst. Atty. Gens., Jackson, Miss., Fred B. Smith, Ripley, Miss., Pat M. Barrett, Lexington, Miss., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KEADY, Chief Judge.

This action was instituted on April 29, 1970, as a class action for declaratory and injunctive relief to eliminate statewide racial segregation and discrimination in the employment and promotion practices of Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service (MCES), and also to eliminate discriminatory practices in the public services and activities provided by the organization.¹

The named plaintiffs, all black residents of Mississippi, are three professional employees of MCES, Charlie F. Wade, LaVerne Y. Lindsey and Athaniel H. Moody; the minor children of Ms. Lindsey and the minor children of Ms. Odell Durham, as 4-H club members; Ms. Odell Durham, a home demonstration club member; and Howard T. Bailey, a farmer. Plaintiffs represent classes consisting of: (a) all black employees or prospective employees of MCES; (b) all black youths who are members of segregated 4-H clubs in Mississippi, or 4-H clubs in the state which practice racial discrimination; and (c) all members of segregated home demonstration groups in Mississippi.²

The United States on October 29, 1971, was allowed to intervene in the action upon the certificate of the Attorney General that the cause was of general importance pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2000h-2.³ Clifford M. Harding, Secretary of Agriculture, and Lloyd H. Davis, Administrator of Federal Extension Service, originally included as defendants in the action, were subsequently realigned on the side of the United States. This action came after the court refused to allow the private plaintiffs to voluntarily dismiss the federal officers who had previously filed answers denying the charges of racial segregation and discrimination; instead of dismissal, their realignment as plaintiffs was ordered.

The defendants are MCES, a federally-funded state agency; its director, Dr. William M. Bost; Mississippi State University (MSU), the land-grant college in Mississippi designated to receive state and federal funds for MCES' operations; its president, Dr. William L. Giles; the Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning; its president and executive secretary; and members of the Board of Supervisors of Holmes County, Mississippi.⁴ By their answers, defendants denied all essential averments of the original and amended complaints and the complaint in intervention.

After extensive discovery, the parties filed a lengthy stipulation of uncontradicted facts. Voluminous evidence, consisting of oral testimony, depositions and documentary exhibits, was submitted to the court initially on plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction, and then on final hearing. Plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction, renewed at the last evidentiary hearing, was denied without prejudice.⁵ On the basis of the stipulation and evidence adduced, the court finds the essential facts to be as follows:

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

A. General

1. MSU is designated by the Mississippi Legislature as the land-grant college to receive state and federal funds for the operation of a cooperative extension service throughout the state; and MCES, as a division of MSU, directly administers the Mississippi extension program. The purpose of cooperative extension work, as set forth in the Smith-Lever Act of May 8, 1914 (7 U.S.C. § 341 et seq.), is to aid in "diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics, and to encourage the application of the same." By this statute, to qualify for receipt of portions of the federal funds for extension work, matching funds must be provided by the State of Mississippi. Also, all 82 counties in the state contribute funds to operate and maintain the extension service. The funds so provided for these purposes are approximately 50% federal, 30% state and 20% county funds.

2. The philosophy of the extension service is to help people help themselves in obtaining a higher level of living and a more satisfying and abundant life. To accomplish these aims, a cooperative arrangement has existed between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provides national leadership and supervises the expenditure of federal and state-matching funds, and MSU, which executes through MCES an approved program of work. The authority for this relationship derives from formal documents setting forth the several understandings between USDA and MSU, which have been periodically revised.⁶ All actions and procedures of MCES affecting personnel and plans of work were routinely approved by USDA until the Department of Justice intervened in this action. The MCES programs are essentially educational in nature and are of great social and economic importance to the citizens of the state. These programs fall into four general categories: agriculture, home economics, 4-H youth development, and community or resource development. Extension workers, employed in varying numbers in different counties, carry out specific programs designed for local needs under the supervision and direction of district and state office personnel.

3. The executive head of MCES is its director, Dr. Bost, who has held that position since 1962. The director is, in turn, responsible to President Giles, who is subject to the directions of the Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning. Director Bost has the direct responsibility for staff organization, selection, assignment, promotion, and transfer of personnel, preparation and presentation of budget requests, overall program development and development of policies relating to employment. In addition to hiring state, district and area personnel, the director recommends to the county boards of supervisors the employment of county extension workers (Miss. Code § 2964), and his recommendations, which are subject to the approval of USDA, are customarily accepted by the supervisors.

B. Employment Policies and Practices

4. As of July 1, 1972, MCES personnel consisted of more than 1000 employees, divided into five basic groups: (a) professional state staff; (b) professional district staff; (c) professional area agent staff; (d) professional county staff; and (e) nonprofessional aides and clerical employees.

5. As of July 1, 1972, 464 persons, including 68 blacks, were employed in various professional positions.⁷ State supervisory personnel and state specialists with statewide responsibilities in various subject-matter fields are located at MSU, except for 3 black specialists who are stationed at Alcorn A & M College (Alcorn), a predominantly black college. The area specialists indifferent fields of knowledge have responsibilities limited to specific geographic areas of the state, and they supervise area agents who work in their subject-matter areas within a territory usually embracing several counties. The administration of the extension program is further divided geographically into four districts, each comprising 20 or 21 counties. The district agent, who is directly under the director, promotes the extension programs within the counties of his district, serves as liaison between the MCES director and the MCES county personnel, and also directs the efforts of male and female district program leaders. The county professionals customarily consist of (a) the county leader who has the overall county program responsibilities as well as administrative and supervisory responsibility over other employees; (b) the county agent (male) who almost always serves as county leader; (c) an extension home economist (female); and (d) one or more 4-H youth agents (male and female) who currently have responsibility equal to that of the county agent or extension home economists. In some counties there are assistant or associate county agents and home economists. At the present time the minimum educational requirement for state and area specialists is a master's degree, with a doctor's degree preferred, and for county professional workers a bachelor's degree, with a master's degree preferred. Advanced degrees are held by 20% of the black and 37% of the white professionals.

6. Besides the professional staff, MCES' personnel consists of 146 clerical employees and 430 nonprofessional aides. Of this number, 10 clerks and 359 aides are black. No formal educational requirements exist as to these positions. The great majority of the black aides work in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, a project which is 100% federally funded and serves a predominantly black clientele.

7. Prior to January 1, 1965, MCES operated a racially dual organization composed of a white extension service staffed by white persons and a similarly structured but separate service staffed mainly by black personnel. Each branch of workers was housed in separate offices and primarily served a clientele of its same race. The Negro branch, with separate headquarters at Jackson, had maintained Negro county extension offices in 56 of the state's 82 counties, staffed wholly by black personnel,⁸ responsible to black state leaders in charge of Negro work; these leaders reported to the MCES director. While a certain degree of internal reorganization began in 1963, the significant changes occurred two years later. In 1965, the titles of all Negro county agents were changed to associate county agents, with no change made in the titles...