Berry v. Sch. Dist. of City of Benton Harbor

515 F. Supp. 344, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18051
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedMay 1, 1981
DocketC.A. 9
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 515 F. Supp. 344 (Berry v. Sch. Dist. of City of Benton Harbor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berry v. Sch. Dist. of City of Benton Harbor, 515 F. Supp. 344, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18051 (W.D. Mich. 1981).

Opinion

*346 DECISION AND REMEDIAL ORDERS

DOUGLAS W. HILLMAN, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

This is a school desegregation action involving three local school districts in Berrien County, Michigan. Berrien County is located in the southwestern corner of Michigan, bounded on the west by Lake Michigan and on the south by the Indiana border. The county’s population is approximately 172,000. Twenty-five percent of that population lives in three principal cities of Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, and Niles. Benton Harbor, with a population of approximately 15,000 is the largest city.

The Benton Harbor Area School District (BHASD) is the largest school district in Berrien County with approximately 9,100 students. 1 The district presently has 77% black student enrollment. It has been the major focus of this school desegregation litigation. Coloma and Eau Claire are both predominantly white, rural school districts that abut the borders of the BHASD. Colonia School District is contiguous to BHASD directly to the north and northeast. The Eau Claire district borders the southern peninsula of the BHASD on its east border and southwest corner.

BHASD is the largest of these three school districts. It was formed in 1965 by consolidation of 16 kindergarten through eighth grade school districts, whose high school students attended the Benton Harbor High School. Subsequently, two additional K-8 districts were added to the consolidated district.

Coloma and Eau Claire are substantially smaller K-12th grade school districts with a significantly different racial makeup in their student populations. The Coloma district is the largest of these two districts with enrollment of 2,433 students, six of whom are black. The Eau Claire district has 879 students. Seventy-three of its students are black. The City of Benton Harbor lies at the far west end of the school district and is approximately 15 miles southwest of the City of Coloma and 15 miles northwest from the Township of Eau Claire.

Both Coloma and Eau Claire are small, rural, homogeneous agricultural communities with little, if any, business, social or economic interaction with Benton Harbor. These towns do not form a metropolitan area with the City of Benton Harbor. In addition to the physical distance between the City of Benton Harbor and the City of *347 Coloma and the Township of Eau Claire, other physical barriers exist between these communities. They are separated by wide expanses of agricultural land. In addition, an expressway from Chicago to Detroit circles the east of Benton Harbor, limiting east-west traffic in and out of the city.

It is also important to understand the population migration in and out of Benton Harbor within the past 15 years. Black students constituted 37.3% of the Benton Harbor district enrollment in 1966, 73.1% in 1976, and approximately 77% in 1981. Several factors account for this rapid change in the racial composition of the area and its school district. Movement of white population out of the city has accelerated and at the same time black movement into the city has increased. In addition, the black population presently has a birth rate that exceeds the white birth rate by 200%. These population trends are not unique to Benton Harbor, but have been characteristic of most urban centers throughout the country in the past two decades. 2 In 1968, the Whirlpool Corporation, Economic and Marketing Department, completed a demographic study of the area entitled: “Population and Mobility Trends in Benton Harbor”. In this report, Whirlpool recognized this established population trend and projected that black population in the area and enrollment in the school district would continue to increase.

In addition, the City of Benton Harbor has suffered an economic disaster within the past decade. This fact cannot be ignored in assessing the segregative impact of the unconstitutional acts of these defendants. Benton Harbor presently totters on the brink of bankruptcy. The downtown business district is a blighted area. It covers 11 square blocks and in that area over 90% of the stores have been closed. Unemployment is up 700% since the 1960s. The city is hopelessly in debt, existing on a day-to-day basis and over the past several months has seriously contemplated receivorship.

I mention these facts only to demonstrate the seriousness of problems that Benton Harbor has experienced and the complexity of devising an effective desegregation remedy in an atmosphere of urban uncertainty, decay and chaos.

In spite of this gloomy overview, it is apparent that Benton Harbor still has a large number of dedicated school officials, board members and interested parents dedicated to improving the quality of the children’s education.

This desegregation case has been in the federal judicial system for more than ten years. It has previously been assigned to two different federal district judges who have heard and decided the liability phase of the litigation. 3 In February, 1980, the case was reassigned to me for formulating, adopting and implementing a remedy. This *348 opinion includes the court’s desegregation remedy plan.

HISTORY OF THE CASE

This action was initiated in November, 1S87, by parents of black students in the Benton Harbor Area School District (BHASD) and by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) against the Benton Harbor School District. In August, 1974, the plaintiffs’ complaint was amended to include the Governor of the State of Michigan, the Michigan Attorney General, the Michigan State Board of Education, the State Superintendent of Public Education, (hereinafter referred to as state defendants) and the Coloma and Eau Claire School Districts as additional defendants. 4

The facts underlying the present litigation have been fully discussed by the court in its earlier opinions. Consequently, a complete recitation of the facts need not be repeated here. The court refers the interested reader to two opinions on liability that appear at 442 F.Supp. 1280 (6 Cir., 1977) and 467 F.Supp. 630 (6 Cir., 1978) for a full understanding of the facts. In addition, see this court’s opinion affirming the findings and conclusions on liability which appears at 494 F.Supp. 118 (D.C., 1980). Liability of each of these defendants has already been determined. The issue presently before the court is establishment of a constitutionally acceptable, fair, understandable and workable remedy.

The touchstone of any school desegregation remedy is that the “scope of the remedy is determined by the nature and extent of the constitutional violation.” Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, et al., 402 U.S. 1, at 16, 91 S.Ct. 1267, at 1276, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1970). Consequently, a brief review of the findings of fact made by the court on the question of liability is appropriate.

Liability was tried and findings on liability were made in two separate phases.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
515 F. Supp. 344, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berry-v-sch-dist-of-city-of-benton-harbor-miwd-1981.