Williams v. Kimbrough

• Decision Date: 28 January 1969
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 11329.
• Citation: 295 F. Supp. 578
• Parties: Linda WILLIAMS, by her father and next friend, Martin Williams, v. George KIMBROUGH, President, School Board of Madison Parish; Madison Parish School Board; and M. A. Phillips, Superintendent of Schools of Madison Parish.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana

295 F. Supp. 578

Linda WILLIAMS, by her father and next friend, Martin Williams, v. George KIMBROUGH, President, School Board of Madison Parish; Madison Parish School Board; and M. A. Phillips, Superintendent of Schools of Madison Parish.

Civ. A. No. 11329.

United States District Court W. D. Louisiana, Monroe Division.

January 28, 1969.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Murphy W. Bell, Baton Rouge, La., Jack Greenberg, Norman Amaker, and William Bennett Turner, New York City, for plaintiff.

Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen. of Louisiana, Carroll Buck and Harry Kron, Asst. Attys. Gen. of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, La., Thompson L. Clarke, Dist. Atty., Sixth Judicial District, St. Joseph, La., for defendants.

DECISION GRANTING MOTION TO ADD INTERVENING PLAINTIFFS AND FOR FURTHER RELIEF

BEN C. DAWKINS, Jr., Chief Judge.

Four former elementary school teachers, of the Negro race, seek intervention in this action, alleging that defendants dismissed them from professional employment as such in violation, first, of an earlier order of this Court implementing the model school desegregation decree in United States v. Jefferson County Board of Education, 372 F.2d 836, affirmed with modification on rehearing en banc, 380 F.2d 385, cert. den. sub nom. Caddo Parish School Board v. United States, 389 U.S. 840, 88 S.Ct. 67, 19 L.Ed.2d 103 (1967); and second, in violation of their rights under the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

This suit, which originally was filed August 20, 1965, as a class action on behalf of Negro students in Madison Parish, sought injunctive relief against defendants' operation and administration of its public schools on a racially discriminatory basis. All that heretofore has transpired in this action, now before the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, is not relevant here and thus need not be related. In its present aspects, however, there is involved a portion of our April 7, 1967 decree, conforming exactly with the model decree set forth in Jefferson. Section VIII(b) of that decree reads:

"(b) Dismissals. Teachers and other professional staff members may not be discriminatorily assigned, dismissed, demoted, or passed over for retention, promotion, or rehiring, on the ground of race or color. In any instance where one or more teachers or other professional staff members are to be displaced as a result of desegregation, no staff vacancy in the school system shall be filled through recruitment from outside the system unless no such displaced staff member is qualified to fill the vacancy. If, as a result of desegregation, there is to be a reduction in the total professional staff of the school system, the qualifications of all staff members in the system shall be evaluated in selecting the staff member to be released without consideration of race or color. A report containing any such proposed dismissals, and the reasons therefor, shall be filed with the Clerk of the Court, serving copies upon opposing counsel, within five (5) days after such dismissal, demotion, etc., as proposed." (Emphasis added.)

June 28, 1968, plaintiffs and Mrs. Nella Williams, Mrs. Doris Cockerham, Mr. Hosea Atkins, and Mrs. Flora Martin filed a motion to add them as intervening plaintiffs. The motion also sought further relief, as set forth infra. The motion alleged that Williams, Cockerham, Atkins, and Martin were Negro teachers dismissed from their teaching positions in violation of that portion of our order of April 7, 1967, and of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The prayer for relief sought, inter alia, immediate reinstatement to their teaching positions, an award of back pay, together with compensation for any loss suffered by them as a result of their allegedly unlawful discharge, plus reasonable attorneys' fees.

A hearing was held on this motion July 24, 1968. The record was later supplemented by an oral deposition given by Brutus Noland Jackson, principal of Wright Elementary School in Tallulah, Louisiana, (Wright), a formerly all-Negro school where all movants here were teaching at the time of their dismissals.

The combined motion for further relief and for addition of the four teachers mentioned as intervening plaintiffs, in effect, has as its principal object the enforcement of our April 7, 1967, decree, as set forth supra. Thus there are "questions of law or fact in common," Rule 24(b), F.R.Civ.P.; and since allowing this intervention would not "unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties," the motion for intervention, timely filed, therefore is granted.

Before proceeding to discussion of the facts surrounding each dismissal, the following background information should be set forth. At the time of the dismissals, none of the teachers here had taught the necessary three years to acquire tenure status under Louisiana law. Thus by L.S.A.-R.S. 17:442, they could be dismissed simply "upon the written recommendation of the parish or city superintendent of schools, as the case may be, accompanied by valid reasons therefor." (Emphasis added.)

Each of the dismissals took place in the spring of 1968, when the School Board (Board) was preparing for faculty integration for the following year, as ordered. In the 1968-69 school year, all schools in Madison Parish, except two,¹ either integrated their faculties for the first time or increased their numbers of teachers of the opposite race. It is particularly noteworthy that Wright had no white teachers in the 1967-68 school year, but employed four for the 1968-69 school year.

NELLA WILLIAMS AND DORIS COCKERHAM

Both Williams and Cockerham were hired by Board in January of 1966 to teach at Wright, where they remained during their entire employment. Williams had graduated from Southern University in 1963, and had been certified by the education department of Louisiana to teach elementary grades in the same year. Before coming to the defendant school system, she had taught elementary grades in Jackson Parish, Louisiana.

At no time were the teaching performances of Williams or Cockerham ever questioned by any one connected with Wright or Board.

April 30, 1968, Jackson, Principal of Wright, at different times called Williams to his office; and then Cockerham. It is undisputed that he then told them that integration of Wright had made necessary the replacement of each of them by white teachers. Thereafter Williams and Cockerham received identical letters from M. A. Phillips, Superintendent of Board, dated May 7, 1968, which read:

"We are required to place some white teachers in all of our former negro schools for the 1968-69 school year.

"It is unfortunate that one of them will have to take your place. In the event there are later openings that you may be able to fill we will let you know.

"If I can assist you in seeking employment elsewhere, you have permission to use me as a reference."

Shortly after receiving these letters, Williams and Cockerham, along with Martin, went to see Phillips about their dismissals. They explained that they were "elementary teachers, and not just Negro teachers," and thus would be willing to accept positions in a white school. Phillips again confirmed that Williams and Cockerham had been replaced by white teachers. He further advised that it was against Board's policy to transfer replaced teachers.

Shortly after the teachers left, an aide of Phillips, who had overheard the discussion, advised Phillips that his actions with reference to the replaced teachers were in violation of our April 7, 1967, order. Phillips, by his own testimony, conceded this mistake and thus sought to "remedy" it with the following action.

May 15, 1968, and May 24, 1968, he sent Cockerham and Williams, respectively, letters notifying them that they had been assigned to Anderson Island School. This — not unlike a consignment to Siberia — is a one-room school located on a plantation approximately 60 miles from Tallulah, Louisiana. All of its twenty-three students are Negroes. At time of hearing they ranged from grades 1 through 8. The one teacher there was and is expected to teach all grades. The School was built and paid for by the plantation owner, who, instead of Board, maintains the building and surrounding grounds. While there is a room connected with the school where a teacher could live, there are no suitable living accommodations for a teacher with a family, or for two teachers. According to Williams, who visited the school after being informed of her "assignment" there, the building was "not in the best condition," and was closed at the time because of high grass surrounding it.

In effect, Williams and Cockerham were given the "choice" of taking the Anderson Island position or being dismissed from Board's system. Each chose the latter.

HOSEA ATKINS

Atkins was teaching the fourth grade at Wright at the time of his dismissal.² On or about April 19, 1968, he received from Phillips a letter addressed to him. Attached to it was a copy of a letter from Phillips to Board. The letter to Atkins read:

"Dear Mr. Atkins "Enclosed herewith is a copy of the letter I am submitting to the Madison Parish School Board at its next meeting." Phillips's letter to Board read "Dear School Board Members "It is my recommendation that Mr. Hosea Atkins not be re-employed as a teacher in the Madison Parish Schools for 1968-69 as his work has not been satisfactory."

At the hearing, Phillips testified that the sole reason for Atkins's dismissal in April of 1968 was his unsatisfactory conduct on a Field trip in the spring of 1967. According to Phillips, when the trip was made, the fourth grade at Wright had just completed a study of Holland. The Field trip was to Dutch Gardens, a public park in Louisiana, built in the likeness of the geography and culture of Holland, and therefore was deemed appropriate.

Atkins was among seven or eight teachers who...