Wells v. Hutchinson

Decision Date25 August 1980
Docket NumberNo. TY-75-69-CA.,TY-75-69-CA.
Citation499 F. Supp. 174
PartiesHarold G. WELLS v. John HUTCHINSON, Director of Texas Agricultural Extension Service, the Commissioners Court of Panola County, Texas.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Larry R. Daves, Tyler, Tex., for plaintiff.

William C. Bednar, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., LeRoy LaSalle, Carthage, Tex., H. Kelly Ireland, Tyler, Tex., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JUSTICE, Chief Judge.

Introduction

There are 254 counties in Texas; Panola County is the only one not served by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.1 The events which led to this curious situation are in issue in this civil action.

The plaintiff, Harold Wells, a black man, is a former employee of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service ("TAES"). Wells worked in Panola County, Texas, as a TAES employee, from October 1964 through 1974.

Two groups of defendants are present in this civil action, the state defendants and the county defendants. The state defendants include the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and its former director, John Hutchinson. The county defendants include Panola County, its governing body, the Commissioners Court of Panola County, and the individual members of the Court, Commissioners Ford, Brooks, Rich, and Davis, and Danny Buck Davidson, the County Judge of Panola County.2

Plaintiff contends that, throughout his employment, he was the victim of impermissible racial discrimination. Wells asserts that defendants: (1) maintained a segregated employment environment; (2) discriminated against him in his job assignment, assignment of responsibilities, and promotion; (3) paid him a lesser salary than white workers because he was black;3 and (4) discharged him because of formal and informal allegations of racial discrimination that he made against his employers. Wells bases his employment discrimination claims on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. ?? 2000e to 2000e-5, the Civil Rights Act of 1870, 42 U.S.C. ? 1981, and the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. ? 1983. The defendants severally deny all of Wells' claims of racial discrimination.

I. TAES IN TEXAS AND PANOLA COUNTY

As a prelude to discussion of plaintiff's claims, it is important to describe the nature of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.4 TAES is a cooperative extension service, operating on funds received from the federal government, the state of Texas, and the county government of each county within which it operates. TAES's roots can be traced to the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, 38 Stat. 372, 7 U.S.C. ? 341 et seq., in which Congress provided for partial federal funding of state agricultural extension services. The federal funds were channeled through the United States Department of Agriculture to the state extension services, who were expected to work in cooperation with the Department. Congress contemplated that these federal funds were to go to the land grant college selected by the legislature in a particular state, to be used to disseminate "useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics."

Prompted by the federal legislation, the Texas legislature passed a resolution in 1915 which created the Texas Agricultural Service. Consonant with the federal enabling statute and its educational mission, TAES was established as, and continues to be, a part of Texas A&M University. The principal offices of TAES are located at the University including the offices of TAES's director. The Director is at the head of TAES's organization, reporting to the President of Texas A&M University through the Dean of Agriculture. Defendant Hutchinson served as Director of TAES throughout all of the years that plaintiff was employed by TAES. Below the state level, TAES is organized into districts. Each district is supervised by a district agent, who oversees extension work in the counties which comprise the district.

Each county within a district is served by several TAES employees. Principally, these include county agricultural extension agents and county home demonstration extension agents. This civil action focuses almost exclusively on the agricultural extension component of the county extension services. It is the duty of agricultural extension agents to inform and advise county residents, inter alia, as to the best methods for raising livestock, growing crops, raising timber, and conducting other activities associated with farm and ranch industries. To this end, they also supervise youth clubs designed to impart such information. Similarly, agricultural agents visit citizens in their homes and at their farms and ranches, speak to citizens at public meetings, and communicate information through the communications media. County agricultural agents maintain offices, which citizens may visit to obtain answers to such questions as they might have. In essence, the agricultural agents are informational links between the universities, where new concepts and methods are developed, and the persons in the field who can ultimately implement those concepts.

Shortly after the creation of TAES in 1915, the Texas legislature created a Negro Agricultural Extension Service. This all-black extension service was maintained until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The black and white extension services were entirely segregated, with the black services operating completely parallel to the equivalent white components. The black service employed only black personnel, served only black residents of Texas, and operated out of an all-black university, Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, which is a component of the Texas A&M University. The white extension service consisted only of white personnel, operated out of an all-white university, and served only white Texas residents. The sole overlap between the two "separate but equal" services occurred when the state leader for the black service reported to the TAES director located at College Station, Texas. Harold Wells entered the TAES system in April 1963, when he interviewed with Reuben A. Sanders, Negro District Agent, to obtain a position with the black extension service. Thus, the dual system described above was the system which Wells entered, when Sanders hired him to be a junior assistant agricultural agent in Harrison County, Texas.

The Harrison County position was merely a training position. In October 1964, Wells became Negro assistant county agent in Panola County. In a short while, he advanced to the position of Negro county agent for Panola County. Panola County's white extension agent at the time was Alfred Croix. Wells operated the black extension service out of offices in an all-black local school; Croix's office, and the offices of the white extension service, were located in the Panola County courthouse. It is noteworthy that the white extension service in Panola County had a full-time secretary and a janitor, whereas the black service was not provided these positions. The salaries of the secretary and janitor for the white service in Panola County were paid by Panola County; no similar contribution was made to the black service.

As a cooperative extension service, operating with federal, state, and county funds, every extension agent's salary is comprised of contributions from all three levels of government. Each of these governmental units made lower contributions to Wells' salary than to the white county agent. Wells' total salary was, therefore, lower than the total salary of Alfred Croix, the white agent. Although Wells and Croix performed essentially identical duties as county agent, TAES and Panola County attempted to justify the salary disparity by reference to the number of residents that each agent served, i. e., there were more white than black residents in Panola County. It was asserted that this difference created a difference in the amount of work required of white and black agents, thereby justifying the salary disparity.

The situation which prevailed in Panola County, Texas, was present in all Texas counties in which both a white and a black extension service operated. Counties with black populations considered to be insignificant had no black county agent. Because most counties with large black populations were located in the eastern portion of Texas, the black extension service was concentrated there. In every county with a black agent, he was paid less than his white counterpart. A justification paralleling Panola County's was offered by all such counties as to these marked salary disparities. In sum, black extension work across the state of Texas was segregated from white extension work, and all black agents received significantly lower salaries than did their white counterparts performing the same duties.

Shortly after Wells became Negro county agent, his title?€”and the title of all Negro county agents in Texas?€”was changed to associate county agent. The only change was in the title, for all job responsibilities remained the same. The black and white services remained segregated. No Negro county agent became a county agent, because the latter job was for a white man. Hence "associate agent" became the virtual title for black extension agents. All black agents were associate agents, and only a very small handful of white agents had the title of associate agent (usually temporarily, pending promotion). Associate agents continued to receive lower total salaries and lower contributions from each of the three governmental levels than did their white counterparts.

As a direct result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the consequent pressure from the United States Department of Agriculture, the Texas Agricultural Extension Service began to merge the white and black extension services in 1965. The...

To continue reading

Request your trial
20 cases
  • Suttles v. US Postal Service, Civil Action No. H-94-3565.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. Southern District of Texas
    • May 15, 1996
    ...who opposes what he reasonably believes to be an unlawful employment practice. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a); see also Wells v. Hutchinson, 499 F.Supp. 174, 196 (E.D.Tex.1980); 29 C.F.R. § 1614.101(b). Retaliation under Title VII is an action taken by an employer against an employee because of the......
  • Patton v. United Parcel Service, Inc.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. Southern District of Texas
    • December 21, 1995
    ...against an employee who opposes what he believes to be unlawful employment practices. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a); see Wells v. Hutchinson, 499 F.Supp. 174, 196 (E.D.Tex.1980). Retaliation under Title VII is an action taken by an employer against an employee because of the employee's opposition ......
  • Oaks v. City of Fairhope, Ala., Civ. A. No. 80-0393-H.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 11th Circuit. United States District Court of Southern District of Alabama
    • May 20, 1981
    ...719, 100 S.Ct. 1967, 64 L.Ed.2d 641 (1980); Gorman Towers, Inc. v. Bogoslavsky, 626 F.2d 607, 614 (8th Cir. 1980); Wells v. Hutchinson, 499 F.Supp. 174, 185 (E.D.Texas 1980). Since the members of the City Council enjoyed absolute immunity with respect to their votes on budgetary matters, Oa......
  • Collin County, Texas v. Haven, Civ. A. No. CA3-84-0376-D.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. Northern District of Texas
    • January 30, 1987
    ...v. Meyerson, 690 F.2d 827, 829 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1039, 103 S.Ct. 1431, 75 L.Ed.2d 791 (1983); Wells v. Hutchinson, 499 F.Supp. 174, 185 (E.D. Tex.1980). Examples of protected legislative actions are a mayor's vetoing an ordinance passed by the city's legislative body, ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT