Loewen v. Turnipseed

488 F. Supp. 1138
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedApril 2, 1980
DocketGC 75-145-S
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 488 F. Supp. 1138 (Loewen v. Turnipseed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loewen v. Turnipseed, 488 F. Supp. 1138 (N.D. Miss. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

ORMA R. SMITH, District Judge.

The action sub judice is before the court after an eight-day nonjury trial for decision on the merits. The court has received and given consideration to the post-trial memoranda and proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law submitted by the parties as well as all pretrial submissions. Based upon the pleadings, the evidence, exhibits and memoranda and proposed findings of fact and the conclusions of law submitted by the parties, this Memorandum of Decision is released and contains the findings of fact and conclusions of law for which provision is made in Rule 52(a), Fed.R.Civ.P.

I. Findings of fact.

A. The Parties.

The plaintiffs named in the complaint, as amended, (hereinafter “complaint”) are: James W. Loewen and Charles Sallis, the editors and two of the eight co-authors of Mississippi: Conflict and Change, a ninth grade textbook in Mississippi History; Monseigneur Paul V. Canonici, Director of Educational Services of the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson, and, as such, the chief administrative officer of Roman Catholic parochial schools within the diocese, which schools are alleged to be qualified to participate in the Mississippi free textbook program; Father Luke Mikschl, Principal of the Holy Child Jesus Elementary and High School, Canton, Mississippi, a Roman Catholic parochial school; Sister Maureen Sullivan, a teacher of Mississippi History at Holy Child Jesus School; Gregory C. Coleman, Stephen G. Lloyd, Theon E. Lloyd, and Hailicia D. Lloyd, black students enrolled in grades nine, seven, five, and kindergarten, respectively, at Holy Child Jesus School, who join in this action through their mother and next friend, Mrs. Alease C. Lloyd; Jacquelyn Ann Chinn, Marie Theresa Chinn, and Madelin Chinn, black students enrolled in grades nine, eight, and four, respectively, at the Holy Child Jesus Elementary School, who join in this action through their mother and next friend, Mrs. Mamie Chinn; the County Board of Education of Jefferson County, Mississippi, together with its president and individual members; the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Education of the Jefferson County, Mississippi School District, a Mississippi public school district; Willie R. Harding and Hennie B. Taylor, teachers of Mississippi History and related subjects in the Jefferson County School District; Nancy Humphrey and Tara Humphrey, black students enrolled in grades nine and eight, respectively, in the Jefferson County School District, who join in this action through their father and mother and next friends, Charles and Dorothy Humphrey; and Catherine Gilmer Gray, a white student enrolled in grade eight at the St. Andrew Episcopal Day School, Jackson, Mississippi, who joins in this action through her father and next friend, the Right Reverend Duncan M. Gray, Jr.

The defendants named in the complaint are John Turnipseed, Howard Ríales, Ben Burney, Evelyn Wilder, Mary Kyle, Virginia McElhaney, and James Wash, individually and in their official capacities and collectively as the full membership of the “rating committee” appointed by Mississippi’s Gov *1142 ernor and State Superintendent of Education to appraise, and, in the exercise of their judgment, recommend textbooks submitted by publishers for use in a required high school course of study, Mississippi History, as provided by § 37-43-21 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated; the Mississippi State Textbook Purchasing Board, its members The Governor of the State of Mississippi, the Superintendent of Education of the State of Mississippi, Larry Tynes, L. L. Morrison, Sr., and Jean McCool, and its Executive Secretary, W. A. Matthews, in their individual and official capacities. 1

B. Nature of Action.

This suit arises from the actions of the “rating committee” defendants in refusing to recommend for adoption as a textbook in the course of Mississippi History, the book Mississippi: Conflict and Change edited by the plaintiffs, Dr. Loewen and Dr. Sallis, who are also two of the authors of the book, and in recommending for adopting in the course of Mississippi History the book Your Mississippi, by Dr. John K. Bettersworth. Plaintiffs claim that said actions of the “rating committee” defendants, and of the Mississippi State Textbook Purchasing Board, and its members, in ratifying the actions of the “rating committee” defendants, deprived them of their rights guaranteed and secured by the First, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and § 1983. Jurisdiction is vested in this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4).

C. The Nature of Relief Sought.

Plaintiffs request the court to grant the following relief:

.(1) An order enjoining defendants to forthwith promulgate and implement procedures, consistent with due process, for hearings on textbooks submitted to state authorities for adoption;

(2) An order enjoining defendants from limiting the submission and appraisal of textbooks to intervals longer than one year; 2

(3) An order enjoining defendants to forthwith approve for use in eligible schools of the state, at state expense, the textbook Mississippi: Conflict and Change ;

(4) An order enjoining defendants from engaging in policies or practices which discriminate against textbooks containing perspectives on history at odds with those traditionally acceptable in Mississippi;

(5) A judgment declaring § 37-43-21 of the Mississippi Code of 1972 unconstitutional; 3

(6) An injunction enjoining defendants from denying approval to any submitted textbook which meets minimum standards of scholarship, satisfies fundamental and reasonable curriculum requirements and which obtains the endorsement of a local school district board of education and its rating committee; 4

(7) An order awarding plaintiffs costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees;

(8) An order granting such additional or alternative relief as the court deems just and equitable.

D. The Applicable State Law.

The pertinent laws of the State of Mississippi governing the process of recommending and adopting books for use as textbooks in the eligible schools of the State of Missis *1143 sippi are found in Chapter 43, Title 37 (§§ 37-43-1, et seq.) Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated. This chapter is entitled “Textbooks”. The sections pertinent to the action sub judice are set forth verbatim in Appendix “A” to this Memorandum.

E. The Evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
488 F. Supp. 1138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loewen-v-turnipseed-msnd-1980.