Davis v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County

United States Supreme Court

402 U.S. 33

Davis et al.  v.  Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County et al.

Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

No. 436.  Argued: October 13-14, 1970 --- Decided: April 20, 1971

East of the major highway that divides the metropolitan area of Mobile, Alabama, live 94% of the area's Negro students, and the schools there are 65% Negro and 35% white. West of the highway the schools are 12% Negro and 88% white. The Court of Appeals approved a desegregation plan which, like the District Court's plan, insofar as those areas were concerned, treated the western section as isolated from the eastern, with unified geographic zones and providing no transportation of students for desegregation purposes. Though some reduction in the number of all-Negro schools was achieved for the 1970-1971 school year, nine elementary schools in the eastern section (attended by 64% of all Negro elementary school pupils in the metropolitan area) were over 90% Negro, and over half of the Negro junior and senior high school students went to all-Negro or nearly all-Negro schools. With regard to the faculty and staff ratio in each of Mobile County's schools, the Court of Appeals directed the District Court to require the school board to establish "substantially the same" ratio as that for the whole district.

Held:

1. The Court of Appeals decision dealing with the faculty and staff ratio is affirmed. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, ante, 402 U.S. 1, at 19-20. P. 35.

2. The Court of Appeals erred in treating the eastern part of metropolitan Mobile in isolation from the rest of the school system, and in not adequately considering the possible use of all available techniques to achieve the maximum amount of practicable desegregation. P. 38.

430 F. 2d 883 and 889, affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part.

BURGER, C.J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

Jack Greenberg argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were James M. Nabrit III, Michael Davidson, Norman J. Chachkin, and Anthony G. Amsterdam.

Abram L. Philips, Jr., argued the cause for respondents Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County et al. With him on the brief were George F. Wood, John J. Parkman, James B. Allen, and Jack Edwards. Samuel L. Stockman argued the cause for respondents Mobile County Council Parent-Teacher Associations et al. With him on the brief were W.A. Kimbrough, Jr., and John W. Adams, Jr.

Solicitor General Griswold argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae. With him on the brief was Assistant Attorney General Leonard.

Briefs of amici curiae were filed by Albert P. Brewer, Governor, MacDonald Gallion, Attorney General, and Joseph D. Phelps, Special Assistant Attorney General, for the State of Alabama; by A.F. Summer, Attorney General, and Semmes Luckett, Special Assistant Attorney General, for the State of Mississippi; by Robert V. Light and Herschel H. Friday for the Little Rock School District et al., and by William L. Taylor, Richard B. Solo, and Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., for the United Negro College Fund, Inc., et al.

Notes