Terry Ann Chambers v. Iredell County Board of Education, a Public Body Corporate of Iredell County, North Carolina , 423 F.2d 613 ( 1970 )

CRAVEN, Circuit Judge:

The question presented by this school case is whether Iredell County has established a unitary school system. We think that a unitary system has been substantially achieved, and affirm the decision of the district court.

The situation in the Iredell County school system is as follows: There are 18 schools in the system. All of these schools, except Unity Elementary School, are fully integrated at present. There are 9,647 students in the system of which 1,802 (23 percent) are black and 7,845 (77 percent) are white. The system operated under HEW approved freedom-of-ehoice plans from 1964 through the 1967-68 school year. In 1968-69 the school board adopted an approved zoning and freedom-of-choice plan. For 1969-70 the board has implemented a pure zoning plan that also was approved by HEW. The degree of integration achieved is demonstrated by an examination of the current racial structures of the various schools in the system.¹ The faculties are integrated in a ratio approximating the racial ratio among students in each school. No qualified black teacher applicant has been denied a job by the Board of Education or its staff, and there is no proof in the record of any discrimination in teacher employment. For 1969-70, all black teacher applicants were hired except one who was objectively unqualified and who applied after all of the available positions had been filled. Black teachers are employed throughout the system in approximately the same ratio to white teachers as black students to white students.

There is only one flaw in the unitary system adopted and already implemented by the school board: Unity School remains all black with 285 students.² Thus 1,517 black students have been fully integrated (84.2 percent) while 285 black students (15.8 percent) remain in an all-black school. The district judge found that the school board’s decision to operate Unity School as an all-black school for the 1969-70 school year only was not racially motivated, and credited the explanation of the school board. Unity will be replaced by New East Elementary School, which is already well under construction and will be ready for occupancy by September 1970. East will absorb Unity’s 285 black students and a part of the students from three other elementary schools: Cool Springs, Ebenezer and Wayside. The result in September 1970 will be a new integrated school (East) with approximately 285 blacks and 475 whites.

The district judge found that the closing of Unity was not racially motivated but was instead based on these considerations: (1) Unity is only 200 yards from the Statesville city limits, is adjacent to a scrap metal salvage yard, and is located on an inadequately small site (12 acres); (2) six of the 26 rooms at Unity are of obsolete wooden construction and are not fireproof; (3) Unity is not well situated relative to major thoroughfares; (4) a new school is needed to serve an expanding suburban pop* ulation growth. It is urged upon us that the finding of the district judge is clearly erroneous. Appellants allege that the decision to close Unity was racially motivated because it arose out of a disinclination to put white pupils into a previously all-black school. This contention is not persuasive in light of the fact that the school board has already integrated Amity School, which was previously all-black and is now two-thirds white. There appears to have been no pattern of simply closing black schools because they have been black.

More difficult to justify than the closing of Unity is .the failure of the Board of Education to “pair” it with Cool Springs, Ebenezer and Wayside Schools for the 1969-70 school year. Again the district judge credited the noninvidious explanation of the board. Unity was not allowed to remain all black during the last year of its operation in order to perpetuate one or more all-white schools. Wayside and Cool Springs are “racially balanced,” i. e., the racial ratio among their students approximates that among all the students in the system, and Ebenezer has about half as many blacks as would be necessary for racial “balance.” Ebenezer and Wayside are overcrowded and could not accommodate students from Unity. Although Cool Springs is operating at less than full capacity, it is located ten miles from Unity and almost that far from Ebenezer and Wayside. Moving white students from these schools to Unity, as suggested by appellants, could result in more racial mixing, but not necessarily in proportion to the racial mix in the entire school population. Unity’s physical shortcomings have been described. Whether the Board of Education was motivated by valid educational considerations or by racial bias was an inference to be drawn from the facts by the district judge. In the context of the obvious good faith of the board and its effectiveness in otherwise completely disestablishing the former dual school system, we cannot say his decision was clearly erroneous.

It is true that absent reasonable effectiveness in disestablishing a segregated school system good intentions are of no avail. But here, in contrast to other cases we distinguish below, a remarkable degree of integration is now an accomplished fact. In all of the following cases, the challenge to the proposed plan of desegregation was directed to the inefficacy of freedom of choice.³ In Nesbit v. Statesville City Board of Education, 418 F.2d 1040 (4th Cir., Dec. 2, 1969), 64 percent of the black students in grades one through six remained in a segregated situation. In Thompson v.

Durham County Board of Education, 418 F.2d 1040 (4th Cir., Dec. 2, 1969), 86.4 percent of the black students in grades one through six remained in four all-black schools. In Ziglar v. Reidsville Board of Education, 418 F.2d 1040 (4th Cir., Dec. 2, 1969), 50 percent of the black children in grades one through five attended an all-black elementary school. In Tucker v. County School Bd. of Amherst County, 418 F.2d 1040 (4th Cir., Dec. 2, 1969), 76 percent of the black students in grades one through seven attended overwhelmingly black schools. In Traynum v. County School Board of Halifax County, 418 F.2d 1040 (4th Cir., Dec. 2, 1969), 93 percent of the blacks in grades eight through 12 attended an all-black school. In Stanley v. Darlington County School District, 424 F.2d 195 (4th Cir., Jan. 26, 1970), only seven percent of all black students in the system attended school with white students. In Whittenberg v. Greenville County School District, 424 F.2d 195 (4th Cir., Jan. 26, 1970), only 33 percent of all blacks attended integrated schools.

We think it also significant that in none of the cases that hate previously come before, us has there been an HEW approved terminal plan for integration actually implemented and put into operation. Furthermore, Iredell’s terminal plan was adopted without prodding from the courts. That the Iredell County Board of Education has been responsible and conscientious in its efforts to achieve a unitary system is made plain by a letter inserted in the record from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office for Civil Rights, set out in the margin.⁴ Contained in the letter is this sentence: “You [Superintendent of the Iredell County Schools], your school board, and your staff are to be commended for the leadership you have shown in meeting the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” We agree. Indeed, we think it doubtful that many school systems have achieved a higher degree of integration than presently prevails in Iredell County. The test is whether a given plan “promises realistically to work, and promises realistically to work now.” Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430, 439, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968). We think this plan works sufficiently well now to deserve the label of a unitary system.

We decline to order the integration of Unity School now, refuse to enjoin the construction of East Elementary School, and find no basis for issuance of an injunction against discriminatory hiring and administrative practices.

Affirmed.

1 . 1969-70 1969-70 TEACHERS STUDENTS 1970-71 STUDENTS

SCHOOL GRADES N W N W TOTAL CAPACITY TOTAL N W

Amity 1-6 3 7 101 168 269 450 250 120 130

Brawley 1-6 j 1 5 16 140 156 210 155 10 145

Celeste-1-8 2 19 70 508 578 650 572 70 502

Henkel Central 1-8 14 48 373 421 575 445 45 400

Cool 1-8 15 70 397 467 700 307 70 237

Springs East 1-6 760 285 475

Ebenezer 1-6 9 20 239 259 270 260 14 246

Harmony 1-8 20 206 547 753 700 630 210 420

Monticello 1-8 22 74 584 658 600 630 50 580

Mt. Mourne 1-6 9 30 245 275 300 250 23 227

North 9-12 48 245 1055 1300 1200 1295 260 1035

Iredell Scotts 1-8 9 50 272 322 550 330 48 282

Sharon 1-6 7 15 210 225 240 211 18 193

Shepard 1-6 8 62 213 275 240 300 86 214

South 9-12 52 213 1203 1416 1300 1335 208 1127

Iredell Troutman 1-8 36 189 1010 1199 1400 1150 163 987

Union 1 — 8 13 28 351 379 650 388 26 362

Grove Unity 1-8 4 285 0 285 780 CLOSED

Wayside 1-6 12 80 333 413 330 235 72 163

2 . This fact leads appellants to contend that the question before us is not whether a unitary system has been effected but whether we may permit delay in achieving it until September 1970. So framed, the answer is obvious. We have read Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed.2d 19 (1969), and Carter v. West Feliciana Parish School Board, 396 U.S. 290, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477 (1970), to mean that we no longer have authority to permit, regardless of the circumstances, delay in implementing a unitary system. Whittenberg v. School District of Greenwille County, 424 F.2d 195 (4th Cir., Jan. 26, 1970) (Petition for rehearing denied); Stanley v. Darlington County School District, 424 F.2d 195 (4th Cir., Jan. 26, 1970); Nesbit v. Statesville City Board of Education, 418 F.2d 1040 (4th Cir., Dec. 2, 1969).

3 . In some instances, e. g., Statesville and Durham County, zoning had accomplished integration for part of the system but freedom of choice remained ineffective as to the rest.

4 . “Jan. 28, 1970

“Mr. T. Ray Gibbs

Superintendent

Iredell County Schools

Box 709

Statesville, North Carolina 28677

“Dear Mr. Gibbs:

“Thank you for the cooperation extended to Mr. N. E. King of my staff during his visit to your administrative unit on January 22, 1970.

“His report indicates that the schools of Iredell County are currently being desegregated in accordance with the plan for desegregation submitted by you to the Office for Civil Rights on August 8, 1969, and approved on August 19, 1969, by Dr. I/loyd R. Headers on, Education Branch Chief, Office for Civil Rights in Washington. The plan commits your administrative unit to total desegregation of its schools by the opening of the 1970-71 school term and to certain interim desegregation measures during the 1969-70 school term.

“Mr. King reports that the administrative unit remains committed to the terminal date of 1970 and has met its responsibilities for carrying out the specified interim measures. You, your school board, and your staff are to be commended for the leadership you have shown in meeting the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Mr. King also reports that the future status of the principal at Unity School is uncertain when Unity is merged into the new elementary school now being built. Please be advised that you must weigh the qualifications of all of your principals objectively as to education, experience, professional competence, and seniority when one is to be selected for a new school. Race may not be considered in promotion, demotion, or reduction in staff. The same standards apply to teachers when a school is phased out.

“If you encounter any problems which will affect the terminal date, please bring them to our attention promptly.

“Sincerely yours,

“Eloise Severinson, Ph. D.

“Regional Civil Rights Director”