Williams v. Zimmerman

• Decision Date: 26 May 1937
• Docket Number: 28.
• Citation: 192 A. 353,172 Md. 563
• Parties: WILLIAMS ET AL. v. ZIMMERMAN ET AL.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

192 A. 353

172 Md. 563

WILLIAMS ET AL. v. ZIMMERMAN ET AL.

No. 28.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

May 26, 1937

Appeal from Circuit Court, Baltimore County; Frank I. Duncan, Judge.

Mandamus by Margaret Williams, infant, by Joshua B. Williams, Jr., her father and next friend, and Joshua B. Williams, Jr. individually, against David W. Zimmerman, principal of the Catonsville High School, and others. From a judgment dismissing the petition, plaintiffs appeal.

Affirmed.

Argued before BOND, C.J., and URNER, OFFUTT, PARKE, SLOAN, MITCHELL SHEHAN and JOHNSON, JJ.

Thurgood Marshall, of New York City, and Leon A. Ransom, of Washington, D. C. (Charles H. Houston and Edward P. Lovett both of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellants.

William L. Marbury, Jr., and William L. Rawls, both of Baltimore (Cornelius V. Roe, of Towson, on the brief), for appellees.

BOND Chief Judge.

A negro child and her father, a resident and taxpayer of Baltimore county, appeal from a dismissal of their petition for the writ of mandamus to compel the school officials to admit the child to the Catonsville High School, a public school maintained in the county for white children only. Admission to that school, under any conditions, was refused because of the child's race and color. The county makes provision for high school education of colored children in Baltimore city, and it is answered that this child would have been given equal facilities for her education there if she had been qualified to avail herself of them, but that she was not qualified. In reply, it is contended for the petitioners that the child had all the qualification that the officials might require, that she was held unqualified upon a test unauthorized by law and not provided for children of both races equally; and, further, if she is found by the court to have been qualified for high school education, that she should be admitted to the Catonsville School because of its convenience, because the law of the state does not authorize a separation of the races such as the officials are making because the petitioners have a legal and constitutional right to the educational facilities within the county, and because, even if a provision of access to like education in the city might afford them all their rights, the provision as arranged and as administered does not afford them.

The county and the city are separate governmental units, and the county territory extends around that of the city for a distance, measuring through the center of it, of about thirty miles. The number of white children in the county is about ten times that of the negro children, and the great majority of the latter live in the thickly populated centers near the city, the remainder of the county being sparsely settled by them. Elementary teaching through seven grades is provided by the county school authorities for children of both races; four years of high school training within the county is provided for the whites only. The difference in number and distribution of the colored children render different arrangements for them inevitable if they are to be educated separately. Many of the colored elementary schools are so small that each is conducted by one teacher, teaching all grades and all subjects. Other colored elementary schools, including that attended by the child Margaret Williams, have larger staffs, with principals. It is testified that high schools cannot be conducted as efficiently for small numbers of pupils as for the larger groups, and that this leads to a preference for an arrangement for high school education of colored children of the county in the nearby city schools. Negro children desiring to take an eighth grade and high school course are therefore sent to the city schools upon payment of their tuition by the county. The city schools have eight grades in the elementary department, and four in the high school, twelve in all from the beginning of a child's schooling until graduation from the high school, and therefore one more than the county schools provide, but the eighth grade for county colored children is provided in the city high schools. The county pays tuition for four years' additional teaching in the city.

Joshua Williams, with the child, Margaret, lives in the county close to the southwest boundary of the city, and about equally distant from Catonsville, in the county, and the nearest colored high school in the city. The city school could probably be reached more easily by public conveyance. The child finished the seventh grade in the county elementary school near her home in June, 1934, when she was thirteen years old, and, upon passing an examination given at her school, received from the principal a card certifying that she was "promoted to the eighth grade," and was recommended as a "very good student"; and she was officially listed as a graduate of the primary school. She took another examination given by county officials at Catonsville to test her qualifications for sending her to the city high school, but her marks were below the requirements totaling 38 3/4 out of a possible 100, with 60 as the minimum for passing, and...