Adams v. School District Number 5, Orangeburg County, South Carolina

232 F. Supp. 692, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6560
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. South Carolina
DecidedAugust 12, 1964
DocketCiv. A. 8301
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 232 F. Supp. 692 (Adams v. School District Number 5, Orangeburg County, South Carolina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. School District Number 5, Orangeburg County, South Carolina, 232 F. Supp. 692, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6560 (southcarolinaed 1964).

Opinion

SIMONS, District Judge.

This action was brought by the named Negro children residing in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and their parents on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, as a class action under Rule 23 (a) (3) of the Fed. Rules of Civil Procedure, for a permanent injunction enjoining School District Number 5 of Orange-burg County, its Trustees and the Superintendent of said School District Number 5 from continuing the policy, practice, ¡custom and usage of operating a compulsory biracial school system in said School District Number 5 in violation of the due process and equal protection •clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Plaintiffs also seek an Order of this Court directing the defendants herein to integrate all school personnel and for ■costs.

This action was brought pursuant to the provisions of Title 28 U.S.C. § 1343 (3) and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

In their Complaint filed March 20, 1964, the petitioners herein allege in substance that they are deprived of equal protection of the laws within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment in that the defendants are maintaining dual, biracial school systems with some schools being attended solely by white pupils and staffed by white teachers, principals and other professional personnel; and with the other schools being attended solely by Negro pupils and staffed by Negro principals, teachers and other professional personnel, all in violation of the principles enunciated in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954).

Plaintiffs allege that they have applied to defendants for permission to enroll the minor plaintiffs in certain schools operated by the defendants, and that, as of the date of filing their Complaint herein, no final action has been taken on the said applications. Plaintiffs admit that they have not exhausted the administrative remedies provided by the South Carolina Code of Laws, §§ 21-247, 21-247.1, 21-247.2 and 21-247.3 Code of Laws of South Carolina 1962.

The defendants in their Answer herein deny that pupil assignments are determined solely by race or color. It is alleged that, under the School Board’s rules, parents of children may apply for enrollment at particular schools at any time 100 days in advance of the opening of a school term, and that the School Board does not pass on these enrollments prior to the expiration of this period. The defendants also pleaded that there were ethnic differences in educational achievement and psychometric intelligence, that would seriously impair the academic standards and educational opportunities for both white and Negro children in School District Number 5, Orangeburg County; and that it would be for the best interest of the Negro pupils, as well as the white pupils, that segregated schools be maintained.

Defendants admit in their Answer that a separation of the white and Negro races in the public schools within School District Number 5, Orangeburg County, does exist, but that it is pursuant “to voluntary custom and usage”. Defendants also admit that applications from some of the minor Negro plaintiffs to enroll in certain schools for the 1964-1965 school term were received on November 4, 1963, December 2, 1963, December 9, 1963 and February 20, 1964; and they further admit that no final action has been taken on these applications. Applications from six Negro children other than plaintiffs to enroll in certain schools were also received during the period from November *694 4,1963 to January 28, 1964, with no final action being taken.

A Pretrial Conference was held by the Court on July 14,1964 in Columbia, S. C., with counsel for all parties present and participating. During this hearing, Motion to Intervene on behalf of Jimmy D. Rembert, et al, filed with the Court on April 23,1964 was granted, and the Court ordered that said third parties listed in the Motion to Intervene be made pai-tiesdefendant to this action.

As a result of the Pretrial Conference, counsel for the parties agreed that no oral evidence would be offered; that the Court would consider the case on the pleadings, the plaintiffs’ Interrogatories and defendants’ Answers thereto, the Deposition of H. A. Marshall, Superintendent of School District No. 5, offered by the plaintiffs, and the exhibits consisting of: a) Original Petition filed by some of the plaintiffs with the Orangeburg School District in 1955 (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit #1) ; b) Correspondence between petitioners requesting transfer and the school board subsequent to 1955 (Defendants’ Exhibit #2) ; and c) The Appendix of appellants comprising the record on appeal to the Fourth Circuit designated as 9216, entitled “School District No. 20, Charleston, S. C., et al., appellants v. Millieent F. Brown, a minor, et al, appellees” (Defendants’ Exhibit #1). Said Appendix contained the record on appeal in Brown, et al. v. School District #20, et al, 226 F.Supp. 819 (E.D.S.C.1963), affirmed 328 F.2d 618 (4th Cir. 1964) presently on Petition of Certiorari to the U. S. Supreme Court. This record contained substantial testimony indicating basic ethnic differences in educational achievement and psychometric intelligence existing between white and Negro pupils; and was strenuously objected to by plaintiffs’ counsel upon the grounds that such evidence was irrelevant, immaterial and not a litigable issue in view of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873; Brown v. School District #20, Charleston, S. C., Supra; Bailey v. Patterson, 369 U.S. 31, 82 S.Ct. 549, 7 L.Ed. 2d 512; Watson v. City of Memphis, 373 U.S. 526, 83 S.Ct. 1314, 10 L.Ed. 529; Goss v. Board of Education of City of Knoxville, Tenn., 373 U.S. 683, 83 S.Ct. 1405, 10 L.Ed.2d 632. The Court admitted such evidence over plaintiffs’ objections, so that the record in the case would be complete in the event the U. S. Supreme Court, in the case of Brown, et al, v. School District of Charleston, S. C.,, supra, now pending before it from this District, should modify its prior line of decisions beginning with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 9 L.Ed. 873 (1954), by determining that the basic ethnic differences in educational achievement and psychometric intelligence between white and Negro pupils are relevant and material to the issues in this type case; and that such matters may properly be considered by school boards in the enrollment and assignment of pupils of the two races to different schools.

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Related

Adams v. School District Number 5
271 F. Supp. 579 (D. South Carolina, 1967)
Randall v. Sumter School District Number 2, Sumter, SC
241 F. Supp. 787 (E.D. South Carolina, 1965)

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232 F. Supp. 692, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-school-district-number-5-orangeburg-county-south-carolina-southcarolinaed-1964.