Source: https://openjurist.org/404/us/1027
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:22:39+00:00

Document:
Appellants sought to convene a three-judge District Court in order to challenge the constitutionality of New Jersey's statutory scheme establishing the boundaries of school districts. They argue that by establishing school district lines to coincide with the boundaries of the State's political subdivisions, cf. N.J.Stat. 18A:8-1, the State imposed upon the public schools patterns of racial imbalance in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. It is said in reply that New Jersey only prescribes school district boundaries in conformity with municipal boundaries. There is, however, a showing that at times a Black has to walk further to his school than the White school in his neighborhood. The remedy is redistricting. We have sponsored that process to protect the right to vote. Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506. The right to education in the environment of a multi-racial community seems equally fundamental.
The result, according to appellants, is an inferior education for students of minority races—something this Court has long condemned. McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 339 U.S. 637, 70 S.Ct. 851, 94 L.Ed. 1149; Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 70 S.Ct. 848, 94 L.Ed. 1114; Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma, 332 U.S. 631, 68 S.Ct. 299, 92 L.Ed. 247; Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337, 59 S.Ct. 232, 83 L.Ed. 208. See also Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 16 S.Ct. 1138, 41 L.Ed. 256; Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220. Appellants sought either a redistricting or an appropriate racial balance in the public schools so that educational opportunity would not be determined by race, cf. Gomperts v. Chase, 404 1237, 1240, 92 S.Ct. 16, 18, 30 L.Ed.2d 30 (1971), or compensatory educational programs to correct for the inferior schooling given minority students. The District Court rejected this approach, however, and dismissed the complaint, finding refuge in de facto segregation. 326 F.Supp. 1235.
If any form of state-imposed segregation is proved, then the racially homogeneous residential neighborhoods and the consequent racial imbalance in schools would seem to be the result of state action.1 "It is a question of the power of the State as a whole," Justice Brandeis said. '[T]he powers of the several state officials must be treated as if merged in a single officer.' Iowa-Des Moines Nat'l Bank v. Bennett, 284 U.S. 239, 244-245, 52 S.Ct. 133, 135, 76 L.Ed. 265 (1931). The Constitution condemns 'discrimination, whether accomplished ingeniously or ingenuously,' Smith v. Texas, 311 U.S. 128, 132, 61 S.Ct. 164, 166, 85 L.Ed. 84 (1940), and where there has been any such discrimination our 'objective [is] . . . to eliminate from the public schools all vestiges of state-imposed segregation.' Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1, 15, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 1275, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971) (emphasis added).
'Most of these children are from families living in poverty. The vast majority are deprived of a decent education throughout their lives. They go to schools which are inferior educationally, financially, and physically. They are years behind in achievement. Few go do to higher education.' Cong. Rec. S. 5067 (April 19, 1971).
Senator Javits recently summarized the problem: 'Whatever you call it, 'de facto segregation,' 'racial unbalance,' or 'the absence of intergroup activity,' it is a serious block to effective education for children of minority groups anywhere in the country, especially in the north and central part of the country where you don't have the established social order of segregation.' Hearings before the Subcommittee on Education of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., at 21 (1970).
'Even in those instances where school segregation is a result of housing patterns with no apparent complicity of school officials, government at all levels—local, State, or Federal invariably is heavily implicated. Historically, racial zoning ordinances imposed by local law were a formidable factor in creating and maintaining racially exclusive neighborhoods. Although such ordinances were held unconstitutional as early as 1917, some communities continued to enforce them, even as late as the 1950s.
'The point we are making is that the current situation we face, in which most minority group children attend school in isolation from children of the majority group, is not accidental or purely de facto. In many cases, it has resulted in whole or in substantial part from an accumulation of governmental actions. Thus the categorical distinction between de jure and de facto segregation is not as clear-cut as it would appear. Upon closer examination, there is probably little legal substance to the concept of de facto school segregation. Further, in the Commission's view, the Government has a moral as well as legal responsibility to undo the segregation it has helped to create and maintain. There is no statute of limitations by which government in its many forms can be exonerated from its past misdeeds or relieved of its current obligations.' Hearings before the Subcommittee on Education of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 352-354 (1970).

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