USA v. G'wood Public Sch

Filing 42

ORDER granting 40 Motion for Unitary Status. Signed by District Judge Sharion Aycock on 7/15/2019. (kab)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI
GREENVILLE DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PLAINTIFF

V.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 4:66-CV-40-SA-JMV

GREENWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT

DEFENDANT

ORDER OF DISMISSAL
In 2017, the United States initiated its most recent periodic review of the Greenwood Public
School District’s (“District”) compliance with the Court’s school desegregation orders and
applicable federal law. After reviewing the information and data provided by the District, the
United States advised the District that it has fulfilled its affirmative desegregation obligations
under the Fourteenth Amendment and applicable federal law for a reasonable period of time and
has eliminated the vestiges of past de jure discrimination to the extent practicable. Now before the
Court is a Joint Motion [40] for Declaration of Unitary Status filed by the Greenwood Public
School District and the United States.
Procedural History
On August 1, 1966, the United States filed its complaint and a motion for preliminary
injunction against the District challenging its racially segregated system of public education under
Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000c et seq. The Court held a hearing on
the motion and, on August 26, 1966, issued an order enjoining the District from promoting
segregation in its schools and requiring the District to file a desegregation plan to “immediate[ly]
start” the desegregation of all schools consistent with the standards set forth in Singleton v. Jackson
Municipal Separate School District, 348 F.2d 729 (5th Cir. 1965).
The District submitted several desegregation plans for court approval between 1966 and
1970, and the Court entered over ten school desegregation orders. The District and the United

States actively litigated the constitutionality of these orders and filed several appeals with the Fifth
Circuit.1 On remand from the Fifth Circuit, the Court issued an Order on January 23, 1970, setting
forth the requirements for desegregation that the District must implement to ensure that the District
was not “maintaining any classrooms or sections in any school building on a racially segregated
basis.” See Order [40-2]. The January 1970 Order also required the District to desegregate its
faculty, extracurricular activities, transportation, and facilities. Id.
In March 1970, the Court consolidated the case brought by the United States with a case
filed by a group of private plaintiffs challenging the ongoing racial segregation in the District
schools. See Lilly Russell v. Greenwood Mun. Sep. Sch. Dist., GC 6963-K. The private plaintiffs
alleged that the January 1970 Order was unconstitutional, as the four racially identifiable black
schools remained majority black under the Order. A few months later, on July 27, 1970 and August
18, 1970, the Court issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order and Supplemental Order rescinding
the student enrollment portion of its January 1970 Order and ordering the District to submit a
revised plan with district-wide senior and junior high schools and five attendance-zone-based
elementary schools.
The United States and private plaintiffs appealed, and the Fifth Circuit reversed and
remanded the case, requiring the District to implement a plan for elementary schools that will
“accomplish a greater degree of desegregation.” Russell v. Greenwood Mun. Sep. Sch. Dist., 445
F.2d 388, 389 (5th Cir. 1971). In accordance with the Fifth Circuit’s opinion, the Court entered an

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See United States v. Greenwood Mun. Sep. Sch. Dist., 406 F.2d 1086 (5th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 395 U.S. 907
(1969); United States v. Greenwood Mun. Sep. Sch. Dist., 422 F.2d 1250 (5th Cir. 1970); Russell v. Greenwood Mun.
Sep. Sch. Dist., 445 F.2d 388 (5th Cir. 1971); United States v. Greenwood Mun. Sep. Sch. Dist., 444 F.2d 544, vacated
as moot by en banc court, 454 F.2d 282 (1972); United States v. Greenwood Mun. Sep. Sch. Dist., 460 F.2d 1205 (5th
Cir. 1972).

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Order on August 16, 1971 creating five schools with grades 1 to 8.2 Aside from orders amending
and enforcing the student attendance zones, the January 1970, July 1970, August 1970, and August
1971 Orders (amended by the order on requiring free transportation) remain the operative orders
that outline the District’s desegregation obligations.
The United States moved for supplemental relief in 1978 regarding inter-district transfers
between the Greenwood Municipal Separate School District and Leflore County School District,
and the Court consolidated these two desegregation cases for this purpose. On August 28, 1978,
the Court issued an Order permanently enjoining the District from accepting transfers of white
students from Leflore County School District to Greenwood High School.
Between 1978 and 2017, the Court granted the District’s motions to: amend attendance
zones (Aug. 9, 1982 Order; July 28, 1993 Order); close W.C. Williams Elementary School (June
30, 2015 Order, Doc. 35); and reopen W.C. Williams as a pre-kindergarten through first grade
school (July 21, 2017 Order, Doc. 37).
For many years, the District submitted semi-annual reports pursuant to the Court’s Orders.
In letters dated April 21, 2017, December 8, 2017, January 29, 2018 and August 13, 2018, the
United States requested additional information from the District regarding its compliance with its
desegregation obligations. On May 16, 2019, the United States conducted a site visit to the District.
The United States analyzed the information and data provided by the District and concluded that
the District met its desegregation obligations.3

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The Order required the Board to provide free transportation for students in the majority-to-minority transfer program,
but did not require free transportation for students in non-contiguous attendance zones. The Fifth Circuit later reversed
this decision and required District to provide free transportation to all students. See United States v. Greenwood Mun.
Sep. Sch. Dist., 460 F.2d 1205 (5th Cir. 1972).  
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The United States contacted the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, the last known counsel of record for private
plaintiffs in the consolidated Leflore County and Greenwood desegregation case, to notify them that the District and
United States intended to file a joint motion for unitary status dismissing the United States’ case against the District.
The North Mississippi Rural Legal Services informed the United States that they are no longer counsel of record for

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Effective July 1, 2019, pursuant to H.B. 987, the Mississippi Legislature will
administratively consolidate the Greenwood Municipal Separate School District and Leflore
County School Districts. The Court dismissed the desegregation case against Leflore County
School District in 2005. See Order of Dismissal [40-1]; see also United States v. Leflore Cty. Sch.
Dist., No. 4:66-CV-0040 (N.D. Miss., Mar. 1, 2005).
Legal Standard
Courts have long recognized that the goal of the school desegregation process is to
promptly convert a de jure segregated school system to a system without “white” schools or
“black” schools, but just schools. Green v. Cnty. Sch. Bd. of New Kent Cnty., Va., 391 U.S. 430, 3
442, 88 S. Ct. 1689, 20 L. Ed. 2d 716 (1968). The standard established by the Supreme Court for
determining whether a school district has achieved unitary status, thus warranting termination of
judicial supervision, is whether: (1) the school district has fully and satisfactorily complied with
the court’s desegregation orders for a reasonable period of time; (2) the school district has
eliminated the vestiges of past de jure discrimination to the extent practicable; and (3) the school
district has demonstrated a good faith commitment to the whole of the Court’s order and to those
provisions of the law and the Constitution which were the predicate for judicial intervention in the
first instance. See Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U.S. 70, 87-89, 115 S. Ct. 2038, 132 L. Ed. 2d 63
(1995); Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 491-92, 498, 112 S. Ct. 1430, 118 L. Ed. 2d 108 (1992);
Bod of Educ. of Okla. City Pub. Sch. v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237, 248-50, 111 S. Ct. 630, 112 L. Ed.
2d 715 (1991).

the private plaintiffs in the Greenwood desegregation case. The United States and District Counsel’s attempts to reach
Ms. Lilly Russell, the original named plaintiff, by phone and at her home, were unsuccessful.

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The Supreme Court has identified six areas, commonly known as the “Green factors,”
which must be addressed as part of the determination of whether a school district has fulfilled its
duties and eliminated vestiges of the prior dual school system to the extent practicable: (1) student
assignment; (2) faculty; (3) staff; (4) transportation; (5) extracurricular activities; and (6) facilities.
Green, 391 U.S. at 435, 88 S. Ct. 1689; see Bd. of Educ. of Okla. City Pub. Sch., 498 U.S. at 250,
111 S. Ct. 630. The Green factors, however, are not intended to be a “rigid framework.” The
Supreme Court has approved consideration of other indicia, such as “quality of education,” as
important factors in determining whether the District has fulfilled its desegregation obligations.
See Freeman, 503 U.S. at 492-93, 112 S. Ct. 1430.
Discussion and Analysis
Prior to the 1966-1967 school year, there were approximately 3,300 white students and
2,800 black students in the District. See Russell, 445 F.2d at 389; Def. Rep. Required Ct. Order,
Mar. 1, 1983. During the 1966-1967 school year, 9 black students or 0.3% of the overall black
student population attended formerly segregated white schools. United States, 406 F.2d at 1092.
That number increased gradually each year as black parents volunteered to send their children to
formerly white schools. In the 1967-1968 and 1968-1969 school years, 18 and 51 black students,
respectively, attended formerly white schools. Id. at 1092, 1092 n.6. According to the District’s
October 1969 report filed with the Court, 334 black students, or 10% of the black student
population, attended formerly white schools during the 1969-1970 school year, and the District
employed eleven black faculty members at the formerly white schools. Def. Report of Aug. 1,
1969.
After the Court entered the January 1970 Order, the District began to achieve some
progress towards desegregation. For the 1970-1971 school year, Greenwood High had 566 white

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students and 515 black students. Russell, 445 F.2d at 390. However, every white seventh- and
eighth-grade student in the District, who was zoned to attend a single-grade middle school under
the January 1970 Order, withdrew. Id. at 389 (Coleman, J., dissenting). All of the 100 white
students zoned for Threadgill High School and the 318 white students zoned for Threadgill
Elementary School, formerly segregated black schools, withdrew or transferred to other schools.
Order, Jul. 27, 1970. Many white parents transferred their children to nearby private schools
including Pillow Academy, an all-white segregation academy founded in 1966. Between 1966 and
1972, the white student population in the District decreased from 3,327 to 1,795. Id. at 389
(Coleman, J., dissenting); Def. Report of Aug. 16, 1971. The white student population continued
to decrease over the years. In the 2018-2019 school year, approximately one hundred white
students attended District schools. Def. Report of Mar. 1, 2019.
The District enrolled 2,680 students in the 2018-2019 school year, as shown below.
2018-2019 Student Enrollment
(as of March 1, 2019 based on its most recent report)
School
Threadgill
Primary
Bankston
Elementary
Davis
Elementary
Threadgill
Elementary
Greenwood
Middle
Greenwood
High
Total

Grades
served
PK – 1

Black students

White students

279

K–6

4

Other
students
2

285

232

87

49

368

K–6

512

2

1

515

2–6

500

4

0

504

7–8

346

6

4

356

9 – 12

635

5

12

652

PK – 12

2,504

108

68

2,680

6

Total

With respect to student transfers, the District no longer has a majority-to-minority transfer
program because all of its schools are majority black. In the 2018-2019 school year, the District
approved twelve inter-district transfers of black students from Leflore and Holmes County School
District to Threadgill Elementary and Greenwood Middle School. The United States also reviewed
the District’s student assignment practices with respect to discipline and special education and did
not find evidence of ongoing racial discrimination. 
The District employed 207 full-time professional instructional staff in the 2018-2019
school year, of whom 157 were black (76%) and 46 were white (22%), as shown below.
Professional Instructional Staff Assignment
(as of March 1, 2019 based on its most recent report)
School

Alternative
School

Black staff

White staff

Other staff

Total

17

5

0

22

K–6

18

10

0

28

K–6

26

6

1

33

2–6

34

2

0

36

7–8

21

8

1

30

9 – 12

39

15

2

56

2

0

0

2

157

Threadgill
Primary
Bankston
Elementary
Davis
Elementary
Threadgill
Elementary
Greenwood
Middle
Greenwood High

Grades
Served
PK – 1

46

4

207

Total
The District also employed 23 full-time employees at the Central Office during the 2018-2019
school year, of whom 21 (91%) were black and 2 (9%) were white.
With respect to facilities, the District has not made any major changes to school buildings
or student assignment since the Court approved of the reopening of the former W.C. Williams

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Elementary School in July 2017. See Order [37]. The District has no plans for closure, major
construction, or expansion of any facilities. Extracurricular activities, including sports, student
government, and clubs, are available to all students in the District regardless of race. In addition,
the District maintains non-discriminatory policies and practices with respect to transportation and
provides transportation to students in a non-segregative and non-discriminatory manner.
Based on the information and data provided by the District, and on all the related facts, the
District has complied with the Court’s desegregation orders for a reasonable period of time and
has eliminated the vestiges of past de jure discrimination with respect to the Green factors to the
extent practicable. Therefore, the Court concludes that the District has met the legal standards for
a declaration of unitary status and that it is entitled to dismissal of this action.
Conclusion
For all of the reasons indicated above, all prior injunctions in this case are dissolved,
jurisdiction is terminated, and the United States’ desegregation case against the District is
dismissed with prejudice.
SO ORDERED this, the 15th day of July, 2019.
/s/ Sharion Aycock
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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