Opinion ID: 304244
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: racial discrimination by the montgomery ymca

Text: 15 Of the four YMCA branches located within the city of Montgomery, three are totally segregated by race. The South and East branches, serving predominately white neighborhoods, have between them 8,000 members, none of whom is a Negro. The Central branch, serving an extensively racially-mixed section of the city, also has an all-white membership. The South, East, and Central branches have all white staffs and Boards of Managers. The fourth branch, Cleveland Avenue, serves a predominately Negro area. It has approximately 2,000 members, nearly all Negroes. The Camp Branch, operating Camp Belser and Camp Rotary in summer, also had an all-white membership. 8 When this suit was filed neither Camp Belser nor Camp Rotary had ever had a Negro member. There had never been a Negro on the YMCA's Board of Directors. 16 Since most of the activities offered by a particular branch are available only to its own members, the overwhelming majority of activities offered by the YMCA are totally segregated by race. Thus, the swimming programs at the South, East, Central and Prattville branches are all-white, while the swimming program at the Cleveland branch is all-black. 9 Even those programs which are publicized as being open to the general membership of the YMCA are in fact rarely integrated. The Alabama Youth Legislature purported to be open to all Hi-Y members, had its first Negro participant in 1969, even though the Cleveland Avenue branch has had an active Hi-Y program for a number of years. In addition, the YMCA programs ostensibly open to the general public are segregated. For example, the YMCA, under its agreement with the city, operates a football program for grammar school children at its South, East and Cleveland Avenue branches. This program is available to all of the city's elementary school children, and membership in the YMCA is not required. At the time of this suit, however, only two or three blacks participated in the leagues at the East and South branches, while only a handful of whites played in the Cleveland Avenue leagues. The football season culminates each year with the playing of two bowl games, both sponsored by the YMCA. One game is played at Crampton Bowl, a municipal stadium donated by the city, between the league champions of the East and South branches. The teams in the other bowl game, played at the football stadium of Alabama State University, a Negro school, are from the Cleveland Avenue branch. 17 The YMCA's segregated branches and programs are a result of an assignment plan established several years ago by which every school in the city of Montgomery was assigned to one of the four YMCA branches, supposedly the branch nearest the school. Thus a student seeking YMCA membership was supposed to join the branch to which his school is assigned. The purported reason for the plan was to assist the individual branches in co-ordinating their athletic programs with those of the city's schools. As the plan now operates, however, each predominately white school in the city is assigned to one of the three all-white branches even though the school may be closer geographically to the Cleveland Avenue branch. Every predominately Negro school is, regardless of its location, assigned to the Cleveland Avenue branch. Furthermore, even those blacks who attend predominately white schools are permitted to join only the Cleveland Avenue YMCA branch. 18 The YMCA has operated Camp Belser on a similar all-white basis. The director of the program recruits only at predominately white schools. While the white branches post notices and send their members brochures publicizing the program, no information about the camp is given to the Cleveland Avenue branch or sent to its members. 10