Court Opinion

ID: 9537392
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:17:21.491792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:36.277411
License: Public Domain

Mallery, J.
(concurring) — This case is more significant for what it reveals, than for what it decides. It reveals an ultimate aspiration of the Negro race, but the only legal question passed upon is a defect in the title of a bill passed by the legislature.
This case demonstrates that the Negro desegregation program is not limited to public affairs. The right of white people to enjoy a choice of associates in their private lives is marked for extinction by the N.A.A.C.P. Compulsory total togetherness of Negroes and whites is to be achieved by judicial decrees in a series of Negro court actions. Browning v. Slenderella Systems of Seattle, 54 Wn. (2d) 440, 341 P. (2d) 859, was the opening gun of the campaign.
The undisputed facts in the instant litigation are that the Evergreen Cemetery has segregated sections restricted to white children, Masons, veterans, Lutherans, and so forth. These restrictions implement the universal desires of religious, racial, and fraternal groups to be associated in death as well as in life. “Birds of a feather flock together.”
In view of the cemetery’s long-standing segregation restrictions, it could not sell the Negro appellants a burial plot in “Babyland.” The white parents who have relied upon the white restriction in question have acquired a right to the association of their own race exclusively. It is this specific right of segregation which this particular case in a series was brought to eliminate. Let it be noted that herein there is no refusal of sepulchre to a Negro nor any complaint as to quality of available burial plots.
*356The cemetery representative tried earnestly to show and sell appellants a burial plot in a children’s section of the cemetery where both white and Negro children were interred. The appellants refused to even look at it. They insisted on burial in “Babyland” and brought this action for injuries to their feelings because they were not permitted to intrude upon the white children segregated therein. Obviously, if Negro children were admitted to “Baby-land,” its white exclusiveness would be gone, and it would be in the same category as the unsegregated section which was rejected by the Negro appellants. The appellants’ grievance is the mere existence of any exclusive section for white children into which Negroes cannot intrude at will. In view of the fact that the respondent cemetery provides unsegregated facilities of equal quality for the general public, including Negroes, there is no other possible issue herein than that of compulsory total desegregation in cemeteries.
This lawsuit is but an incident, the second of a series, in the over-all Negro crusade to judicially deprive white people of their right to choose their associates in their private affairs.
The Negro race, ably led by N.A.A.C.P., makes the result of every Negro lawsuit the measure of its success in securing not only rights equal to whites in public affairs, but also of special privileges for Negroes in private affairs. This explains why the N.A.A.C.P. administers massive retaliation upon judges for opinions that do not advance the Negro cause. Witness the following excerpts from a circular mailed by N.A.A.C.P. in the recent election campaign:
“Justice Joseph A. Mallery wrote a dissenting opinion in the case which is reported in 54 Washington Reports (2d) at page 452. A dissenting opinion is one that is written by a judge who disagrees with the opinion of the majority of the judges. In his dissent, Justice Mallery stated: ‘When a white woman is compelled to give a negress a Swedish massage, that too is involuntary servitude.’ As authority for that statement he cited an opinion of a Florida court.
“Justice Mallery is now running for re-election to the *357State Supreme Court in a non-partisan election. He is opposed for the position by a Seattle attorney. We urge you, in the interest of justice to all persons, regardless of race, religion or national origin, to cast your vote against Justice Mallery in the September 13th primary election and in the final election on November 8, 1960.”
The case referred to is Browning v. Slenderella Systems of Seattle, supra. The statement “When a white woman is compelled against her will to give a negress a Swedish massage, that too is involuntary servitude,” was made in a dissenting opinion in a case which the Negro race won. Even a dissenting opinion which does not countenance special privileges for Negroes requires the writer’s elimination under the political tactics employed by the N.A.A.C.P.
A victorious crusade of the N.A.A.C.P. for the special privilege of Negroes to intrude upon white people in their private affairs can only be won at the expense of the traditional freedom of personal association which has always characterized the free world. Unfortunately, special privileges seem preferable on the part of those who enjoy them to other people’s freedom. Specifically, Negroes rate their special privilege of compulsory private association more highly than the ancient right of white people to enjoy voluntary association.
From time immemorial the scope and extent of an individual’s choice in his private affairs has been the Anglo-Saxon measure of his liberties. No individual right has been more cherished than the right to choose one’s associates. Regimentation in the private affairs of life, on the other hand, has been the badge of the police state.
In America we are committed to the proposition that society is composed of individuals, and that the best interest of the public is served by preserving the individual’s rights. This is the justification for the constitutional guarantee of minority rights against the encroachments of majorities. Indeed, it is upon this principle that the world now stands divided.
It remains to be seen how resistant our ancient liberties of private association will be to the variety of mass pres*358sures being mobilized by the N.A.A.C.P. It is, indeed, a concerted and aggressive force to be reckoned with. Experience has shown that an aggressive minority can frequently exact special privileges from an indifferent majority. It may be that the realization of the Negro dream of compulsory total togetherness is just around the corner.