Moore v. Tangipahoa Parish School Board Supplemental Brief for Appellants

    IN THE
UNITED STATE? COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT 
NO. 30781

JOYCE MARIE MOORE, et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,

vs.

TANGIPAHOA PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, et al.,
Def endants-Appellees,

JOSEPH DURHAM, et al.,
Intervening Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court 
for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division

SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF FOR APPELLANTS

JACK GREENBERG 
NORMAN J. CHACHKIN 
MARGRETT FORD 
10 Columbus Circle

/ New York, New York 10019
Attorneys for Appellants



IN THE
UNITED STATE? COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT 
NO. 30781

JOYCE MARIE MOORE, et al.,
PI arintiffs'Appellants,

vs. j

TANGIPAHOA PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, et al.,
Defendants-Appellees,

JOSEPH DURHAM, et al.,
Intervening Defendants-Appe11ees.

Appeal from the United States District Court 
for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division

SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF FOR APPELLANTS

This Supplemental Brief is filed on behalf of the 
appellants in this matter (black present and former employees
of the Tangipahoa Parish school system) in accordance with this

ICourt’s letter directive of December 10, 1973 and subsequent 
extension of time.I

The issues framed on this appeal and briefed nearly 
three years ago remain the subjects of a present controversy to 
this date. The Tangipahoa Parish school board has maintained



the expanded number of schools with sex-separated classes 
which it instituted concurrently with desegregation, over the 
considerable protests not only of the plaintiffs but also of 
many white citizens and a bi-racial cross-section of its student 
population. None of the dismissed teachers who were denied 
relief by the district court's orders which are the subject of 
this appeal has been rehired, and in any event none was given 
or offered back pay from the time of his wrongful dismissal.
Nor have the demoted former school principals been compensated 
for their reduction in pay. Since this appeal does not present 
detailed questions of remedy (such as a contest over the proper 
manner of calculating damages, etc.), the issues originally 
presented on behalf of each of the former teachers, principals 
and band directors, remain viable and appropriate for decision.

There have been no factual changes since the district 
court order which render the claims presented on this appeal 
either moot or otherwise inappropriate for decision. After 
this appeal was taken, the school board decided to reopen the 
Midway School, of which appellant McCoy had formerly been the 
principal. The initial plan of the board was to assign a white 
principal to this school, which was to serve some of the grades 
housed at Natalbany prior to its reopening. After plaintiffs 
filed pleadings in this district court, and a hearing was had, 
the court directed defendants to hire a black principal for 
Midway unless "it can be shown that the defendants are unable 
to obtain a qualified black principal" (Minute Entry of August 
13, 1971). This was subsequently done, although the job was 
not offered to Mr. McCoy, who is presently an assistant prin-

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cipal at Roseland school.

Plaintiffs are not familiar with the current faculty- 
racial composition or pattern of assignment among the schools, 
and we anticipate that deferefents will furnish this information 
to the Court. No enrollment or faculty assignment report has

i

been filed since the fall of 1971. On May 25, 1972, counsel 
received a copy of the following minute entry entered by ihe 
district court:

This case having been pending for 
over three years, all presently contem­
plated proceedings having been completed, 
and there having been no action herein 
for over 12 months, there appears to be 
no further reason at this time to maintain 
the file as an open one for statistical 
purposes, and the Clerk is instructed to 
submit a JS-6 form to the Administrative 
Office.
Nothing contained in this minute entry 
shall be considered a dismissal or 
disposition of this matter, and, should 
further pioceedings in it become necessary 
or desirable, any party may initiate it in 
the same manner as if this minute entry 
had not been entered.

Undersigned counsel thereupon contacted the district court's 
law clerk and informed him of the pendency of this appeal. No 
amended minute entry was received but it is assumed that the 
complete file in this matter remains in New Orleans and has 
not been transmitted to a federal records center.

Each of the appellants has made efforts to mitigate 
his or her damages in this matter insofar as possible. Because 
of the length of time which has passed since this appeal was 
initiated, counsel have not yet been able to contact each teacher, 
principal or band director involved; however, the following

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pertinent information has been gathered:

1. Mr. McCoy is now within three credit hours
of completing the requirements for a Master's 
Degree. His present position is that of 
Assistant Principal at the Roseland school 
operated by defendants.

2. Mr. Duplessis is presently teaching at 
Jackson State College but remains interested 
not only in back pay but also in reinstatement.

3. Mr. Epps is teaching in the public schools at 
Ferriday, Louisiana, and seeks reinstatement 
and back pay.

4. Gloria Duplessis is teaching at Greenville, 
Mississippi but counsel have not yet been 
successful in contacting her.

5. Mary Walker is married and is now Mary Walker 
Wilson. She is employed as a clerk/typist in 
the Parish Sheriff's office, and seeks rein­
statement and back pay.

6. Counsel believes at this time that all other 
demoted principals remain in the system except 
Mr. C.B. Temple, who has retired. Each, however, 
has a viable claim to a back pay award for
the reduction in salary each suffered.

7. Joseph Richardson seeks both reinstatement and 
back pay.

Since this appeal was taken, however, there have been 
legal developments which we belie\e make disposition of the 
matter fairly straightforward. The district court's 1969 order 
tracked Jefferson and anticipated Singleton on virtually every 
point; however, since some of the changes in status occurred 
prior to Singleton, plaintiffs make no per se claims even though 
the lack of established objective standards for faculty evalua­
tion at the relevant times is clear on this record.

On the other hand, it is also cter under the law of 
this Circuit that the principles announced in Singleton and

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y

!subsequent decisions interpreting it, are not irrelevant to 
the issues presented on these facts. Lee v. Macon County Bd, 
of Educ., 453 F.2d 1104 (5th Cir. 1971).

The disproportionate reduction in black faculty, and 
among black principals, which occurred coincident with the 
effective desegregation of the Tangipahoa Parish schools), should 
have shifted the burden to defendants to show that nonracial 
criteria were employed in selecting those faculty members and 
administrators to be demoted or dismissed. Cf. Williams v. 
Kimbrough, 415 F.2d 874 (5th Cir. 1969), cert, denied, 396 U.S. 
1061 (1970). Yet it is very clear that defendants made the 
same mistake (sanctioned by the district court) as did the 
school authorities in Smith v. Board of Educ. of Morrilton, 365 
F.2d 770 (8th Cir. 1966): they treated black faculty at closed
school facilities as expendable without reference to their 
qualifications vis-a-vis the entire system. Thus, for example, 
appellees' brief claimed (at p. 6): "In the case of Robert
Warford, Judge Rubin found that he was the assistant principal 
of a high school that was closed in accordance with the plan
approved by the Federal District Court and was placed as a

iteacher in an elementary school. Elementary schools in Tangi­
pahoa Parish do not have assistant principals. The loss of 
status was not discriminatory." Similarly, on the following 
page, appellees had stated: "Mr. Manly Youngblood, Mr. C.B.
Temple, and Mr. Joe Brumfield's change in status occurred as

I >
a result of the original order in the integration suit which 
reduced some high schools to junior high school level and was

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necessary because of the integration of the schools. Since 
there had been two high schools in every town in the Parish 
and two junior high schools, it was necessary to abolish the 
four Negro high schools and integrate them into the white high 
schools." Apart from this racist approach to what is necessary 
to desegregate, see, e.q., Lee v. Macon County Bd. of Educ.,
448 F.2d 746 (5th Cir. 1971); Harrington v. Colquitt County Bd. 
of Educ., 460 F.2d 193, 196 n.3 (5th Cir. 1972), cert, denied,
409 U.S. 915 (1972), it could hardly be clearer that black
principals lost their status because their schools were closed 
or reduced to serve lower grade levels.

Whatever doubts may have remained in the district 
court's jnind upon receipt of this evidence, however, should 
have been eliminated when the court was apprised of the number 
of instances in which defendants hired white teachers and 
appointed white principals to replace the appellants herein, 
to whom these jobs were not offered. The school board's attempt 
to justify its practices by reference to purported dissatisfaction 
with appellants' performance— dissatisfaction which apparently 
only became noticeable after, but not before, the schools were 
integrated— has been rejected by this and other Courts. See 
Jackson v. Wheatley School Dist,. 430 F.2d 1359 (8th Cir. 1970); 
McFerren v. County Bd. of Educ.. 455 F.2d 199 (6th Cir.), cert, 
denied, 407 U.S. 934 (1972); Sparks v. Griffin, 460 F.2d 433
(5th Cir. 1972).

Appellants respectfully pray that the decision below 
be reversed and the case remanded for the purpose of establishing

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damages and fashioning such injunctive relief as may be appro­
priate in light of current circumstances.

Respectfully submitted,

JACK GREENBERG 
NORMAN J. CHACHKIN 
MARGRETT FORD 
10 Columbus Circle 
New York, New York 10019
Attorneys for Appellants

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that on this 19th day of January,
1974, I served three copies of the foreping Supplemaa tal Brief 
for Appellants upon counsel for the appellees heron, by depositing 
same in the United States mail, first class postage prepaid, 
addressed as follows:

Hon. Joseph H. Simpson 
Asastant District Attorney 
Amite, Louisiana 70422
John D. Kopfler, Esq. 
105 South Cate Avenue