United States v. State of Mississippi (Smith County School District), Sylvarena Baptist Academy

499 F.2d 425, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 7103
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedAugust 23, 1974
Docket72-2521
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 499 F.2d 425 (United States v. State of Mississippi (Smith County School District), Sylvarena Baptist Academy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. State of Mississippi (Smith County School District), Sylvarena Baptist Academy, 499 F.2d 425, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 7103 (5th Cir. 1974).

Opinions

GEWIN, Circuit Judge:

The Smith County, Mississippi Board of Supervisors (hereinafter the “Supervisors”) leased an unused public school facility to the Sylvarena Civic Center Association (hereinafter the “Association”). Thereafter, the Association subleased the facility to the Sylvarena Baptist Academy (hereinafter the “Academy”), a private segregated school, to house its students and teachers. In response to these developments, the United States Department of Justice filed a complaint seeking to have the sublease executed by the Association to the Academy set aside because it alleged that the sublease impeded the effectiveness of the district court’s order mandating the desegregation of the Smith County schools. The district court set aside the original lease between the Supervisors and the Association basing the relief granted on the finding that the sublease between the Association and the Academy “chilled” the court’s attempts to provide . for meaningful integration of Smith County schools. On appeal, a panel of this court, while recognizing that impermissible state involvement had resulted from the leasing arrangements, determined that the relief granted by the district court was inappropriate. The panel opinion provided that the Academy should be enjoined from denying admission to any student on the basis of race. See 476 F.2d 941 (5th Cir. 1973). Subsequently this case was placed en banc. Since we conclude that the relief required by the panel opinion does not adequately address the precise issues involved as disclosed by the record, that opinion is vacated and this case is remanded to the district court with directions.

[428]*428I

On this appeal we are required to ascertain the appropriate equitable relief which a district court should grant as a result of its determination that a local government entity, which is currently under a directive to desegregate its school facilities, is impermissibly involved through a leasing agreement with a private segregated academy established to afford an educational haven for those white students seeking an escape from the newly integrated public school system. Our previous pronouncements concerning state involvement with private segregated schools demonstrate that covert efforts by local government officials to circumvent the effectiveness of school desegregation decrees through the leasing or the sale of public school property to “white flight” academies will not be sanctioned. Those who seek •to continue or re-establish the previously discarded segregated order through private means are prohibited from receiving government largesse in their endeavors. Local government units that are under court mandates to operate unitary school systems have an emphatic duty and responsibility to assure that their relationships or undertakings with private parties in no respect encourage, aid, facilitate, or result in the establishment or operation of private segregated schools. With these recognized and guiding principles enunciated, it is abundantly clear to us that the district court acted within its sound discretion in recognizing that the leasing arrangement between the Academy, a private segregated school, and the Association must be cancelled.1

II

In 1967, the Smith County School District (hereinafter “the school district”) determined that it was economically infeasible to continue operating several of its rural schools, including the Sylvarena School.2 Therefore, it ordered the Sylvarena School closed and its students transferred to the nearby town of Raleigh. Since the Sylvarena School was located on “sixteenth section land”, the building reverted back to the control of the Supervisors.3 The Supervisors, acting as trustees, must lease sixteenth section lands for the exclusive benefit of public education. In furtherance of their fiduciary duties, on March 4, 1968 the Supervisors entered into a lease agreement with the Association for the rental of the Sylvarena School. The Association was composed of white persons who lived in the Sylvarena area.4 The Superintendent of the school district, Mr. Tally, approved the lease arrangement. The lease provided for a term of twenty-five years with an annual rental of five dollars. It was apparently the original intent of the Association to use the Sylvarena School exclusively as a village meetinghouse for public and social events and other community activities.

Throughout the summer of 1970, the residents of Smith County and neighboring Jasper County were confronted with the reality of the imminent desegrega[429]*429tion in fact of their public schools. During July, several meetings we.re held by those residents who were interested in creating a private school in response to public school desegregation. After these initial organizational conferences, members of the private school movement conferred with officials of the Association for the purpose of discovering whether the Association would be interested in leasing the Sylvarena School buildings as a site for the future private academy. Following some tentative negotiations, an informal arrangement was consummated between the two groups whereby the academy leaders could take immediate possession of the school grounds and commence the necessary repairs on the deteriorated school buildings for ,occupancy in the fall of the year. The private school forces incorporated under Mississippi law naming their pedagogic venture the Sylvarena Baptist Academy.

With unusual zeal the members of the Academy donated their time and labors for the needed repairs of the school buildings. The issuance of membership shares furnished the initial capital outlay that was needed to purchase those materials that were not donated by civic-minded citizens in the area. As a consequence of the concerted community effort, the Academy was able to open its doors for the 1970 fall semester. The Academy and the Association then en-' tered into a formal written agreement on January 15, 1971, leasing the property to the Academy for a term of twenty-two years, the period of time which remained under the Association’s lease with the Supervisors. This sublease required an annual rental of five dollars to be paid directly by the Academy to the superintendent of schools.

Sylvarena’s effective metamorphosis from a formerly public school to a private segregated academy did not go unnoticed. During the development stages of the private school, representatives of the United States Department of Justice repeatedly telephoned counsel for the school board and the Supervisors informing him that the Government felt that the lease violated the district court’s previously issued desegregation order. However, these pleas for action fell on deaf and unresponsive ears. Thus on October 15, 1971, the Government petitioned the district court for supplemental relief pursuant to that court’s retention of jurisdiction in its August 11, 1970 order requiring the immediate desegregation of the Smith County School System. The Government requested that the court cancel the lease between the Association and the Academy claiming that the lease interfered with the court’s previous desegregation order in that white students from Smith County schools had enrolled in the all-white academy thereby undermining the effectiveness of its desegregation order.

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Bluebook (online)
499 F.2d 425, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 7103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-state-of-mississippi-smith-county-school-district-ca5-1974.