The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Spring 1991: Volume 5, Number 4

Civil Rights Monitor
Spring 1991

• Introduction
• Senate Judiciary Committee Rejects Judge Kenneth Ryskamp
• Supreme Court Rules in Fetal Protection Case
• Supreme Court Accepts Georgia School Desegregation Case
• Supreme Court Accepts Higher Education Desegregation Case
• Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Voting Rights Cases
• My Mind on Freedom: 40 Years of LCCR

Supreme Court Accepts Higher Education Desegregation Case

On April 15, the Supreme Court agreed to examine the issue of how far a state that maintained a racially segregated University system must go to desegregate the system. The Court accepted for review an en bane Fifth Circuit Court decision affirming the District Court's conclusion that the "State of Mississippi had met its affirmative duty to disestablish its former de jure segregated system of higher education." The Fifth Circuit held that "to fulfill its affirmative duty to disestablish its prior system of de jure segregation in higher educa tion, the state of Mississippi satisfies its constitutional obligation by discontinuing prior discriminatory prac tices and adopting and implementing good-faith, race-neutral policies and procedures."

The African American plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision in order to determine the appropriate standard for assessing when states have met their constitu tional obligation to dismantle their segregated university systems.

The question before the Supreme Court as expressed in the DOJ petition is:

"Whether Mississippi satisfied its obligation to dismantle its racially dual system of higher education, when state action continues to interfere on the basis of race with a qualified student applicant's choice of which school to attend."

Background

The state of Mississippi operated a segregated system of higher education consisting of eight institutions until 1962 when the District Court ordered the admission of James Meredith, an African American student, to the University of Mississippi. Meredith was the first African American to attend one of the 5 historically white in stitutions (HWIs): the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, the University of Southern Mis sissippi, Mississippi University for Women, and Delta State University. In 1906 the first white student enrolled in one of the historically black institutions (HBIs): Jackson State University, Alcorn State Univers1tv, and Mis sissippi Valley State University.

African American plaintiffs riled suit on January 28, 1975 alleging that the state of Mississippi was continuing to maintain a dual system of higher education in violation of the Constitution, sec. 1981 and sec. 1983 of the U.S. Code, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Department of Justice filed suit alleging similar violations. After twelve years of attempts to reach a consensual resolution, trial began on April 27, 1987. On December 10, 1987, District Court Judge Biggers issued his opinion. The trial record established that in 1985-86, the University of Mississippi's African American undergraduate enrollment was 5.9 percent while Jackson State University's enrollment was 91.9 percent African American (these two universities are cited as they are the "premier" HWI and HBI respectively]. The percentage of African American faculty at the University of Mis sissippi was 1.5, and at Jackson State University 67.3.

Judge Biggers found that the standard that should be applied in higher education desegregation cases is the narrow standard articulated in Alabama State Teachers Association (ASTA) v. Alabama Public School and Col lege Authority, where the court held that a "state's affirmative duty is satisfied by the good faith adoption of race-neutral policies and procedures." Judge Biggers rejected the' broader standard established for elemen tary and secondary school desegregation in the Supreme Court's opinion in Green i,~ School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430 (1908), and applied by the Sixth Circuit in a higher education case, Geier v. Alexander, that school districts have an affirmative duty to eliminate all vestiges of the segregated system. Judge Biggers' opinion explained:

"The ASTA court made a distinction between the state's duty in the higher education field as distinguished from the secondary and elementary education areas. This distinc tion was buttressed by the Supreme Court's ... decision in 'Bazemore v. Friday,' [which] involved a fourteenth amendment challenge of the North Carolina Extension Service 4 -H and Homemaker Clubs which had been racially segregated by law prior to 1965. Even though the clubs continued to exhibit marked racial imbalance, the Court found that the Extension Service has 'disestablished segregation' by adopting a policy allow ing all club members to freely choose which club they wished to join ... The Court distin guished Green's condemnation of 'ineffective' freedom of choice plans in local public schools on the grounds that 'while school boards customarily have the power to create school attendance areas and otherwise designate the school that particular students may attend, there is not statutory or regulatory authority to deny a young person the right to join any club he or she wishes to join ... Thus, Bazemore draws a clear distinc tion between elementary and secondary education systems and those systems where admissions are traditionally determined by voluntary choice.""