Ruling on the Issue of Segregation

    APPENDIX a

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
EASTERN DISTRICT OE MICHIGAN 

SOUTHERN DIVISION

RONALD BRADLEY, et al..

Plaintiffs
v .

WILLIAM G. MILLIKEN, et al.,

Defendants

DETROIT FEDERATION OF TEACHERS,,
LOCAL #23.1, AMERICAN FEDERATION 
OF TEACHERS, AFL-CIO,

Defendant- 
Intervenor

and

DENISE MAGDOWSKI, et al.,

Dcfendants- 
Intervenor

RULING ON ISSUE OF SEGREGATION 

This action was commenced August 18, 1970, by­

plaintiffs, the Detroit Branch of the National Association for 

the Advancement of Colored People and individual parents and 

students, on behalf of a class later defined by order of the 

Court dated February 16, 1971, to include "all school children 

of the City of Detroit and all Detroit resident parents who 

have children of school age." Defendants are the Board of 

Education of the City of Detroit, its members and its former 

superintendent of schools. Dr. Norman A. Drachler, the Governor, 

Attorney General, State Board of Education and State Superin­

tendent of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan. In 

their complaint, plaintiffs attached a statute of the State 

of Michigan known as Act 40 of the 1970 Legislature on the

A T R U E  C O P Y
FREDERICK W. JOHNSON ClerkA . 0. A .B Y

d e p u t y  c l e r k "

CIVIL ACTION NO: 
35257

*
The standing of the NAACP as a proper party plaintiff was 

not contested by the original defendants and the Court expresses 
no opinion on the matter.



ground that it put the State of Michigan in the position of 

unconstitutionally interfering with the execution and operation 

of a voluntary plan of partial high school desegregation 

(known as the April 7, 1970 Plan) which had been adopted by 

the Detroit Board of Education to be effective beginning with 

the fall 1970 semester. Plaintiffs also alleged that the 

Detroit Public School System was and is segregated on the 

basis of race as a result of the official policies and actions 

of the defendants and their predecessors in office.

Additional parties have intervened in the litigation 

since it was commenced. The Detroit Federation of Teachers 

(DFT) which represents a majority of Detroit Public schqol 

teachers in collective bargaining negotiations with the defendant 

Board of Education, has intervened as a defendant, and a group 

of parents has intervened as defendants.

Initially the matter was tried on plaintiffs' motion 

for preliminary injunction to restrain the enforcement of 

Act 48 so as to permit the April 7 Plan to be implemented. On 

that issue, this Court ruled that plaintiffs were not entitled 

to a preliminary injunction since there had been no proof that 

Detroit has a segregated school system. The Court of Appeals 

found that the "implementation of the April 7 Plan was thwarted 

by State action in the form of the Act of the Legislature of 

Michigan," (433 F.2d 897, 902), and that such action could not 

be interposed to delay, obstruct or nullify steps lawfully 

taken for the purpose of protecting rights guaranteed by the 

Fourteenth Amendment.

The plaintiffs then sought to have this Court direct 

the defendant Detroit Hoard to implement the April 7 Plan by

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tho start of the second semester (February, 1971) in order to 

remedy the deprivation of constitutional rights wrought by the 

unconstitutional statute. In response to an order of the Court, 

defendant Board suggested two other plans, along with the 

April 7 Plan, and noted priorities, with top priority assigned 

to the so-called "Magnet Plan." The Court acceded to the 

wishes of the Board and approved the Magnet Plan. Again, 

plaintiffs appealed but the appellate court refused to pass 

on the merits of the plan. Instead, the case was remanded 

with instructions to proceed immediately to a trial on the . 

merits of plaintiffs1 substantive allegations about the Detroit 

School System. 438 F .2d 945 (6th Cir. 1971).

Trial, limited to the issue of segregation, began 

April 6, 1971 and concluded on July 22, 1971, consuming 41 

trial days, interspersed by several brief recesses necessitated 

by other demands upon the time of Court and counsel. Plaintiffs 

introduced substantial evidence in support of their contentions, 

including expert and factual testimony, demonstrative exhibits 

and school board documents. At the close of plaintiffs’ case, 

in chief, the Court ruled that they had presented a prima facie 

case of state imposed segregation in the Detroit Public Schools; 

accordingly, the Court enjoined (with certain exceptions) all 

further school construction in Detroit pending the outcome 

of the litigation.

The State defendants urged motions to dismiss as to 

them. These were denied by the Court.

At the close of proofs intervening parent defendants 

(Denise Magdowski, ct al.) filed a motion to join, as parties 85 

contiguous "suburban'- school districts - all within the so-

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called Larger Detroit Metropolitan area. This motion was 

taken under advisement pending the determination of the issue 

of segregation.

It should be noted that, in accordance with earlier 

rulings of the Court, proofs submitted at previous hearings 

in the cause, were to be and are considered as part of the 

proofs of the hearing on the merits.

In considering the present racial complexion of the 

City of Detroit and its public school system we must first'look 

to the past and view in perspective what has happened in the 

last half century. In 1920 Detroit was a predominantly white 

city “ 91% - and its population younger than in more recent 

times. By the year 1960 the largest segment of the city's 

white population was in the age range of 35 to 50 years, while 

its biack population was younger and cf childbearing age. The 

population of 0-15 years of age constituted 30% of the total 

population of which 60% were white and 40% were black, in

1970 the white population was principally aging— 45 years_

while the black population was younger and of childbearing 

Childbearing blacks egualed or exceeded the total white 

population. As older white families without children of 

school age leave the city they are replaced by younger black 

families with school age children, resulting in a doubling 

of enrollment in the local neighborhood school and a complete 

change in student population from white to black. As black 

inner city residents move out of the core city they "leap-frog" 

the residential areas nearest their former homes and move to * 

areas recently occupied by whites.

»
The population of the City of Detroit reached its

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highest point in 1950 and has been declining by approximately 

169,500 per. decade since then. In 1950, the city population 

constituted 61% of the total population of the standard 

metropolitan area and in 1970 it was but 36% of the metro­

politan area population. The suburban population has 

increased by 1,978,000 since 1940. There has been a steady 

out-migration of the Detroit population since 1940. Detroit 

today is principally a conglomerate of poor black and white 

plus the aged. Of the aged, 80% are white.

If the population trends evidenced in the federal 

decennial census for the years 1940 through 1970 continue, 

the total black population in the City of Detroit in 1980 

will be approximately 840,000, or 53.6% of the total. The 

total population of the city in 1970 is 1,511,000 and, if 

past trends continue, will be 1,338,000 in 1980. In school 

year 1960-61, there were 285,512 students in the Detroit 

Public Schools of which 130,765 v/ere black. In school year 

1966-67, there were 297,035 students, of which 168,299 were 

black. In school year 1970-71 there were 289,743 students ol 

which 184,194 were black. The percentage of black stude"^ 

in the Detroit Public Schools in 1975-76 will be 72.0%, 

in 1980-81 will be 80.7% and in 1992 it will be virtually 

100% if the present trends continue. In 1960, the non-white 

population, ages 0 years to 19 years, was as follows:

0 - 4 years 42%

5 - 9 years 36%

10 - 14 years 28%

15 19 years 18%



*
In 1970 the non-white population, ages 0 years to 19 years, 

was as follows:

0 - 4 years 48%

5 - 9 years •50%

10 - 14 years 50%

15 - 19 years 40%

The black population as a percentage of the total population 

in the City of Detroit was:

(a) 1900 . 1.4%

(» 1910 1.2%

(c) 1920 4.1%

(d) 1930 7.7%

(e) 1940 9.2%

(f) 1950 16.2%

(g) 1960 28.9%

(h) 1970 43.9%

The black population as a percentage of total student 

population of the Detroit Public Schools vas as follows:

(a) 1961 45.8%

(b) 1963 51.3%

<c) 1964 53.0%

(d) 1965 54.8%

(e) 1966 56.7%

(f) 1967 58.2%

(g) 1968 59.4%

(h) 1969 61.5%

(i) 1970 63.8%

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For tho years indicated the housing characteristics in the 

City of Detroit were as follows:

(a) 1960 total supply of housing
’ units was 553,000

(b) 1970 total
units

supply of housing 
was 530,770

The percentage decline in the white students in the 

Detroit Public Schools during the period 1961-1970 (53.6% 

in 1960; 34.8% in 1970) has been greater than the percentage 

decline in the white population in the City of Detroit during 

the same period (70.8% in 1960; 55.21% in 1970), and 

correlatively, the percentage increase in black students in 

the Detroit Public Schools during the nine-year period 1961­

1970 (45.8% in 1961; 63.8% in 1970) has been greater than the 

percentage increase in the black population of the City of 

Detroit during the ten-year period 1960-1970 (23.3% in 

1960; 43.9% in 1970). In 1961 there were eight schools in 

the system without white pupils and 73 schools with no 

Negro pupils. In 1970 there were 30 schools with no 

white pupils and 11 schools with no Negro pupils, an 

increase in the number of schools without white pupils of 

22 and a decrease in the number of schools without 

Negro pupils of 62 in this ten-year period. Between 

1968 and 1970 Detroit experienced the largest increase in 

percentage of black students in the student population of any 

major northern school district. The percentage increase in 

Detroit was 4.7% as contrasted with —

New York 2.0%

Los Angeles 1.5%

Chicago 1.9%

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Philadelphia 1.7*

Cleveland 1.7*

Milwaukee 2.6*

St. Louis 2.6%

Columbus 1.4*

Indianapolis 2.6*

Denver 1.1*

Boston 3.2*

San Francisco 1.5*

Seattle 2.4*

In 1960, there were 266 schools in the Detroit 

School System. In 1970, there were 319 schools in the 

Detroit School System.

' In the Western, Northwestern, Northern, Murray, 

Northeastern, Kettering, King and Southeastern high school 

service areas, the following conditions exist at a level 

significantly higher than the city average:

(a) Poverty.in children

(b) Family income below poverty level

(c) Rate of homicides per population

(d) Number of households headed by females

(e) Infant mortality rate

(f) Surviving infants with 
defects

neurological

( g ) Tuberculosis cases per 1,000 population

(h) High pupil turnover in schools

The City of Detroit is a community generally divided 

by racial lines. Residential segregation within the city and 

throughout the larger metropolitan area is substantial, per­

vasive and of long standing. Black citizens arc located in

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separate and distinct areas within the city and are not 

generally to be found in the suburbs. While the racially 

unrestricted choice of black persons and economic factors 

may- have played some part in the development of this pattern 

of residential segregation, it is, in the main, the result 

of past and present practices and customs of racial discrimina­

tion, both public and private, which have and do restrict the 

housing opportunities of black people. On the record there 

can he no other finding.

Governmental actions and inaction at all levels, 

federal, state and local, have combined, with those of 

private organizations, such as loaning institutions and real 

estate associations and brokerage firms, to establish and 

to maintain the pattern of residential segregation throughout 

the Detroit metropolitan area. It is no answer to say that 

restricted practices grew gradually (as the black population 

in the area increased between 1920 and 1970), or that since 

1948 racial restrictions on the ownership of real property 

have been removed. The policies pursued by both government 

and private persons and agencies have a continuing and present 

effect upon the complexion of the community - as we know, 

the choice of a residence is a relatively infrequent affair.

For many years FHA and VA openly advised and advocated the 

maintenance of "harmonious" neighborhoods, i-e., racially 

and economically harmonious. The conditions created 

continue. While it would be unfair to charge the present 

defendants with what other governmental officers or agencies 

have done, it can be said that the actions or the failure to 

act by the responsible school authorities, both city and 

state, were linked to that of these other governmental units.

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When we speak of governmental action we should not view the 

different agencies as a collection of unrelated units.

Perhaps the most that can be said is that all of them, 

including the school authorities, are, in part, responsible 

for the segregated condition which exists. And we note that 

just as there is an interaction between residential patterns 

and the racial composition of the schools, so there is a 

corresponding effect on the residential pattern by the racial 

composition of the schools.

Turning now to the specific and pertinent (for our 

purposes) history of the Detroit school system so far as it 

involves both the local school authorities and the state 

school authorities, we find the following:

During the decade beginning in 1950 the Board 

created and maintained optional attendance zones in neighbor­

hoods undergoing racial transition and between high school 

attendance areas of opposite predominant racial compositions. 

In 1959 there were eight basic optional attendance areas 

affecting 21 schools. Optional attendance areas provided 

pupils living within certain elementary areas a choice of 

attendance at one of two high schools. In addition there 

was at least one optional area either created or existing in 

1960 between two junior high schools of opposite predominant 

racial components. All of the high school optional areas, 

except two, were in neighborhoods undergoing racial 

transition (from white to black) during the 1950s. The two 

exceptions were: (1) the option between Southwestern

(61.6% black in 1960) and Western (15.3% black); (2) the 

option between Dcnby (0% black) and Southeastern (30.9% black) 

With the exception of the Dcnby'-Southoastcrn option (just

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noted) all of the options were between high schools of 

opposite predominant racial compositions. The Southwestern- 

Western and Denby-Southeastern optional areas are all white 

on the 1950, 1960 and 1970 census maps. Both Southwestern 

and Southeastern, however, had substantial white pupil 

populations, and the option allowed whites to escape integra­

tion. The natural, probable, forseeable and actual effect of 

these optional zones was to allow white youngsters to escape 

identifiably "black" schools. There had also been an optional 

zone (eliminated between 1956 and 1959) created in "an 

attempt . . .  to separate Jews and Gentiles within the 

system," the effect of which was that Jewish youngsters 

went to Mumford High School and Gentile youngsters went to 

Cooley. Although many of these optional areas had served 

their purpose by 1960 due to the fact that most of the areas 

had become predominantly black, one optional area (Southwestern- 

Western affecting Wilson Junior High graduates) continued until 

the present school year (and will continue to effect 11th and 

12th grade white youngsters who elected to escape from 

predominantly black Southwestern to predominantly white Western 

High School). Mr. Henrickson, the Board's general fact witness, 

who was employed in 1959 to, inter alia, eliminate optional 

areas, noted in 1967 that: "In operation Western appears to

be still the school to which white students escape from 

predominantly Negro surrounding schools." The effect of 

eliminating this optional area (which affected only 10th 

graders for the 1970-71 school year) was to decrease 

Southwestern from 86.7% black in 1969 to 74.3% black in 1970.

The Board, in the operation of its transportation 

to relieve overcrowding policy, has admittedly bused black

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pupils past or away from closer white schools with available 

space to black schools. This practice has continued in 

several instances in recent years despite the Board's avowed 

policy, adopted in 1957, to Utilize transportation to 
increase integration.

With one exception (necessitated by the burning of 

a white school), defendant Board has never bused white 

children to predominantly black schools. The Board has not 

bused white pupils to black schools despite the enormous 

amount of space available in inner-city schools. There were 

22,961 vacant seats in schools 90% or more black.

The Board has created and altered attendance zones, 

maintained and altered grade structures and created and 

altered feeder school patterns in a manner which has had the 

natural, probable and actual effect of continuing black and 

white pupils in racially segregated schools. The Board admits 

at least one instance where it purposefully and intentionally 

built and maintained a school and its attendance zone to 

contain black students. Throughout the last decade (and 

presently) school attendance zones of opposite racial 

compositions have been separated by north-south boundary lines, 

despite the Board's awareness (since at least 1962) that 

drawing boundary lines in an east-west direction would result 

in significant integration. The natural and actual effect of 

these acts and failures to act has been the creation and 

perpetuation of school segregation. There has never been a 

feeder pattern or zoning change which placed a predominantly 

white residential area into a predominantly black school zone
P

or feeder pattern. Every school which was 90% or more black 

in 1960, and which is still in use today, remains 90% or more

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black. Whereas 65.8% of Detroit's black students attended 

90% or more black schools in I960,. 74.9% of the black students 

attended 90% or more black schools during the 1970-71 school 
year.

The public schools operated by defendant Board are 

thus segregated on a racial basis. This racial segregation

is in part the result of the discriminatory acts and omissions 

of defendant Board.

In 1966 the defendant State Board of Education and 

Michigan Civil Rights Commission issued a Joint Policy State­

ment on Equality of Educational Opportunity, requiring that

"Local school boards must consider the factor or 
racial balance along with other educational 

. considerations in making decisions about selection 
of new school sites, expansion of present 
facilities . . . .  Each of these situations . 
presents an opportunity for integration.”

Defendant State Board's "School Plant Planning Handbook" requires 
that

"Care in site location must be taken if a serious 
transportation problem exists or if housing 
patterns in an area would result in a school . 
largely segregated on racial, ethnic, or socio- 

, economic lines."

The defendant City Board has paid little heed to these statements 

and guidelines. The State defendants have similarly failed to 

take any action to effectuate these policies. Exhibit NN 

reflects construction (new or additional) at 14 schools which 

opened for use in 1970-71; of these 14 schools, 11 opened over 

90% black and one opened less than 10% black. School con­

struction costing $9,222,000 is opening at Northwestern High 

School which is 99.9% black, and new construction opens at 

Brooks Junior High, which is 1.5% black, at a cost of $2,500,000.

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The construction at Brooks Junior High plays a dual segregntcry 

role: not only is the construction segregated, it will result 

in a feeder pattern change which will remove the last majority 

white school from the already almost all-black Mackenzie High 

School attendance area. .

Since 1959 the Board has constructed at least 13 

small primary schools with capacities of from 300 to 400 

This practice negates opportunities to integrate, "contains” 

the black population and perpetuates and compounds school 

segregation.

The State and its agencies, in addition to their 

general responsibility for and supervision of public eduent' n, 

have acted directly to control and maintain the pattern cf 

segregation in the Detroit schools. The State refused, ur.f ; ’ 

this session of the legislature, tc provide authorization or 

funds for the transportation of pupils within Detroit reg*'—'t <'-ss 

of their poverty or distance from the school to which they 

were assigned, while providing in many' neighboring, mostly 

white, suburban districts the full range of state supported 

transportation. This and other financial limitations, such 

as those on bonding and the working of the state aid formula 

whereby suburban districts were able to make far larger per 

pupil expenditures despite less tax effort, have created and 

perpetuated systematic educational inequalities.

The State, exercising what Michigan courts have held 

to be is "plenary power" which includes power "to use a 

statutory scheme, to create, alter, reorganize or even dissolve 

a school district, despite any desire of the school district, 

its board, or the inhabitant:; thereof," acted to reorganize

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the school district of the City of Detroit.

The State acted through Act 48 to impede, delay 

and minimize racial integration in Detroit schools. The 

first sentence of Sec. 12 of the Act was directly related to 

the April 7, 1970 desegregation plan. The remainder of the 

section sought to prescribe for each school in the eight 

districts criterion of "free choice" (open enrollment) and 

"neighborhood schools" ("nearest school priority acceptance"), 

which had as their purpose and effect the maintenance of 

segregation. .

In view of our findings of fact already noted we 

think it unnecessary to parse in detail the activities c_ 

local board and the state authorities in the area of school 

construction and the furnishing of school facilities. It ...s 

our conclusion that those activities were in keeping, general I 

with the discriminatory practices which advanced or perpctir 

racial segregation in these schools.

It would be unfair for us not to recognize the 

many fine steps the Board has taken to advance the cause ^  

quality education for all in terms of racial integration and 

human relations. The most obvious of these is in the field 

of faculty integration.

Plaintiffs urge the Court to consider allegedly 

discriminatory practices of the Board with respect to the 

hiring, assignment and transfer of teachers and school 

administrators during a period reaching back more than 15 '

years. The short answer to that must be that black teachers 

and school administrative personnel were not readily available 

in that period. The Board and the intervening defendant union

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have followed a most advanced and exemplary course in adopting 

and carrying out what is called the "balanced staff concept" - 

which seeks to balance faculties in each school with respect 

to race, .sex and experience, with primary emphasis on race. 

More particularly, we find:

1. With the exception of affirmative policies 

designed to achieve racial balance in instructional staff no 

teacher in the Detroit Public Schools is hired, promoted or 

assigned to any school by reason of his race.

2. In 1956, the Detroit Board of Education adopted 

the rules and regulations of the Fair Employment Practices 

Act as its hiring and promotion policy and has adhered to 

this policy to date.

3. The Board has actively and affirmatively sought 

out and hired minority employees, particularly teachers and 

administrators, during the past decade.

4. Between 1960 and 1970, the Detroit Board of 

Education has increased black representation among its 

teachers from 23.3% to 42.1%, and among its administrators

. from 4.5% to 37.8%.

5. Detroit has a higher proportion of black 

administrators than any other city in the country.

6. Detroit ranked second to Cleveland in 1968 

among the 20 largest northern city school districts in the 

percentage of blacks among the teaching faculty and in 1970( 

surpassed Cleveland by several percentage points.

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7. The Detroit Board of Education currently 

employs black teachers in a greater percentage than the 

percentage of adult black persons in the City of Detroit.

8. Since 1967, more blacks than whites have been 

placed in high administrative posts with the Detroit Board 

of Education.

9. The allegation that the Board assigns black 

teachers to black schools is not supported by the record.

10. Teacher transfers are not granted in the Detroit 

Public Schools unless they conform with the balanced staff 

concept.

11. Between 1960 and 1970, the Detroit Board of 

Education reduced the percentage of schools without black 

faculty from 36.3% to 1.2%, and of the four schools currentli 

without black faculty, three are specialized trade schools 

where minority faculty cannot easily be secured.

12. In 1968, of the 20 largest northern city 

school districts, Detroit ranked fourth in the percentage 

of schools having one or more black teachers and third m

the percentage of schools having three or more black teachers.

13. In 1970, the Eoard held open 240 positions in 

schools with less than 25% black, rejecting white applic. 

for these positions until gualified black .applicants could 

be found and assigned.

14. In recent years, the Board has come under pressure 

from large segments of the black community to assign male 

black administrators to predominantly block schools to serve

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as male role models for students, but such assignments have 

been made only where consistent with the balanced staff 

concept.

15. The numbers and percentages of black teachers 

in Detroit increased from 2,275 and 21.6%, respectively,

in February, 1961, to 5,106 and 41.6%, respectively, in 

October, 1970.

16. The number of schools by percent black of 

staffs changed from October, 1963 to October, 1970 as 

follows:

Number of schools without black teachers—  
decreased from 41, to 4.

Number of schools with more than 0%, but less 
than 10% black teachers— decreased from 58, to 8.

Total number of schools with less than 10% black 
teachers— decreased from 99, to 12.

Number of schools with 50% or more black teacher- 
increased from 72, to 124.

17. The number of schools by percent black of staffs 

changed from October, 1969 to October, 1970, as follows:

Number of schools without black teachers— decreased 
from 6, to 4.

Number of schools with more than 0%, but less than 
10% black teachers— decreased from 41, to 8.

Total number of schools with less than 10% black 
teachers— decreased from 47, to 12.

Number of schools with 50% or more black teachers -­
increased from 120, to 124.

18. The total number of transfers necessary to

achieve a faculty racial quota in each school corresponding to ' •
the system-wide ratio, and ignoring all other elements is, 

as of 1970, 1,026.

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19. If account is taken of other elements necessary 

to assure quality integrated education, including qualifica­

tions to teach the subject area and grade level, balance of 

experience, and balance of sex, and further account is taken 

of the uneven distribution of black teachers by subject 

taught and sex, the total number of transfers which would be 

necessary to achieve a faculty racial quota in each school 

corresponding to the system-wide ratio, if attainable at all, 

would be infinitely greater.

20. Balancing of staff by qualifications for subject,

and grade level, then by race, experience and sex, is educationally 

desirable and important.

21. It is important for students to have a success' 

ful role model, especially black students in certain schools, 

and at ccrtuir, grade levels.

22. A quota of racial balance for faculty in each 

school which is equivalent to the system-wide ratio and 

without more is educationally undesirable and arbitrary.

23. A severe teacher shortage in the 1950s and 

1960s impeded integration-of-facuity opportunities.

24. Disadvantageous teaching conditions in Detroit

in the 1960s— salaries, pupil mobility and transiency, class 

size, building conditions, distance from teacher residence, 

shortage of teacher substitutes, etc.— made teacher recruitment 

and placement difficult. ,

25. The Board did not segregate faculty by race, but 

rather attempted to fill vacancies with certified and qualified

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teachers who would take offered assignments.

26. Teacher seniority in the Detroit system, 

although measured by system-wide service, has been applied 

consistently to protect against involuntary transfers and 

"bumping" in given schools.

27. Involuntary transfers of teachers have occurred

only because of unsatisfactory ratings or because of decrease 

of teacher services in a school, and then only in accordance 

with balanced staff concept. .

28. There is no evidence in the record that Detroit 

teacher seniority rights had other than equitable purpose

or effect.

29. Substantial racial integration of staff can be 

achieved, without disruption of seniority and stable teacVinrr 

relationships, by application of the balanced staff concr;

to naturally occurring vacancies and increases and reductions 

of teacher services. .

30. The Detroit Board of Education has entered ir.t:~ 

successive collective bargaining contracts with the Detroit 

Federation of Teachers, which contracts have included provisions 

promoting integration of staff and students.

The Detroit School Board has, in many other instances 

and in many other respects, undertaken to lessen the impact 

of the forces of segregation and attempted to advance the 

cause of integration. Perhaps the most obvious one was the 

adoption of the April 7 Plan. Among other things, it has 

denied the use of its facilities to groups which practice racial 

discrimination; it docs not permit the use of its facilities

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for discriminatory apprentice training programs; it has opposed 

state legislation which would have the effect of segregating 

the district; it has worked to placed black students in craft 

positions in industry and the building trades; it has brought 

about a substantial increase in the percentage of black 

students in manufacturing and construction trade apprentice­

ship classes; it became the first public agency in Michigan 

to adopt and implement a policy requiring affirmative act of 

contractors with which it deals to insure equal employment 

opportunities in their work forces; it has been a leader in 

pioneering the use of multi-ethnic instructional material, 

and in so doing has had an impact on publishers specializing 

in producing school texts and instructional materials; and 

it has taken other noteworthy pioneering steps to advance 

relations between the white and black races.

In conclusion, however, we find that both the tc 

of Michigan and the Detroit Board of Education hav^ committee 

acts which have been causal factors in the segregated condition 

of the public schools of the City of Detroit. As we assay 

the principles essential to a finding of de jure segregation, 

as outlined in rulings of the United States Supreme Court, 

they are:

1. The State, through its officers and agencies, 

and usually, the school administration, must have taken som- 

action or actions with a purpose of segregation.

2. This action or these actions must have created 

or aggravated segregation in the schools in question.

3. A current condition of segregation exists.

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We find these tests to have been met in this case. We

recognize that causation in the case before us is both 

several and comparative. The principal causes undeniably 

have been popoulation movement and housing patterns, but 

state and local governmental actions, including school board 

actions, have played a substantial role in promoting 

segregation. It is, the Court believes, unfortunate that we 

cannot deal with public school segregation on a no-fault 

basis, for if racial segregation in our public schools if an 

evil, then it should make no difference whether we classify 

it de jure or de facto. Our objective, logically, it seems 

to us, should be to remedy a condition which we believe need... 

correction. In the most realistic sense, if fault or blame 

must be found it is that of the community as a whole, 

including, of course, the black components. We need not 

minimize the effect of the actions of federal, state and 1c- 

governmental officers and agencies, and the actions of 1;. .....i._, 

institutions and real estate firms, in the establishment ana 

maintenance of segregated residential patterns — which lend to 

school segregation - to observe that blacks, like ethnic group 

in the past, have tended to separate from the larger group and 

associate together. The ghetto is at once both a place of 

confinement and a refuge. There is enough blame for everyone 

to share.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

1. This Court has jurisdiction of the parties and 

the subject matter of this action under 28 U.S.C. 1331(a), 

1343(3) and (4), 2201 and 2202; 42 U.S.C. 1983, 1988, and 

2000d.

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2. In considering the evidence and in applying 

legal standards it is not necessary that the Court find that 

the policies and practices, which it has found to be dis­

criminatory, have as their motivating forces any evil intent 

or motive. Keyes v. Sch. Dist, #1, Denver, 383 F. Supp. 279. 

Motive, ill will and bad faith have long ago been rejected

as a requirement to invoke the protection of the Fourteenth 
Amendment against racial discrimination. Sims v. Georgia,

389 U.S. 404, 407-8.

3. School districts are accountable for the natural, 

probable and forseeable consequences of their policies and 

practices, and where racially identifiable schools are the 

result of such policies, the school authorities bear the 

burden of showing that such policies are based on educationally 

required, non-racial considerations. Keyes v. Sch. Dist., 

supra, and Davis v. Sch. Dist. of Pontiac, 909 F. Supp. 7"'

and 443 F.2d 573.

4. In determining whether a constitutional violation 

has occurred, proof that a pattern of racially segregated 

schools has existed for a considerable period of time anic. ...is 

to a showing of racial classification by the state and its 

agencies, which must be justified by clear and convincing 

evidence. State of Alabama v. U.S., 304 F .2d 583.

5. The Board's practice of shaping school attendance 

zones on a north-south rather than an east-west orientation, 

with the result that zone boundaries conformed to racial
»

residential dividing linos, violated the Fourteenth Amendment. . 

Northcross v. Dd. of F.d. , Memphis, 333 F . 2d 661.

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«  •
6. Pupil racial segregation in the Detroit Public 

School System and the residential racial segregation result­

ing primarily from public and private racial discrimination 

are interdependent phenomena. The affirmative obligation of 

the defendant Board has been and is to adopt and implement 

pupil assignment practices and policies that compensate

for and avoid incorporation into the school system the 

effects of residential racial segregation. The Board's 

building upon housing segregation violates the Fourteenth 

Amendment. See, Davis v. Sch. Dist. of Pontiac, supra, and 

authorities there noted.

7. The Board's policy of selective optional' 

attendance zones, to the extent that it facilitated the 

separation of pupils on the basis of race, was in violation 

of the Fourteenth Amendment. Hobson v. Hansen, 269 F. Supp. 

401, aff:d sub nom., Smuck v. Hobson, 406 r.2d 175.

8. The practice of the Board of transporting black 

students from overcrowded black schools to other identifiable 

black schools, while passing closer identifiably white schools, 

which could have accepted these pupils, amounted to an act • 

of segregation by the school authorities. Spangler v. Pasadena 

City Bd. of Ed., 311 F. Supp. 501.

9. The manner in which the Board formulated and

modified attendance zones for elementary schools had the

natural and predictable effect of perpetuating racial

segregation of students. Such conduct is an act of de jure

discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

U.S. v. School District 153, 206 F. Supp. 706; Brewer v. City«
of Norfolk, 397 F.2d 37.

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•  #

10. A school board may not, consistent with the.

Fourteenth Amendment, maintain segregated elementary schools

or permit educational choices to be influenced by community

sentiment or the wishes of a majority of voters. Cooper v .

Aaron, 350 U.S. 1, 12-13, 15-16. ■

"A citizen's constitutional rights can hardly be 
infringed simply because a majority of the peop' , 
choose that it be." Lucas v. 44th Gen'l Assembly 
of Colorado, 377 U.S. 713, 736-737.

11. Under the Constitution of the United States 

and the constitution and laws of the State of Michigan, the 

responsibility for providing educational opportunity to all 

children on constitutional terms is ultimately that of the 

state. Turner v. Warren County Board of Education, 313 F. Supp. 

380; Art. VIII, §§ 1 and 2, Mich. Constitution; Dasiewicz v .

Bd. of Ed. of the City of Detroit, 3 N.W.2d 71.

12. That a state's form of government may delegate 

the power of daily administration of public schools to cf f i r - ' - 

with less than state-wide jurisdiction does not dispel the 

obligation of those who have broader control to use the 

authority they have consistently with the constitution. In 

such instances the constitutional obligation toward the 

individual school children is a shared one. Bradley v ■ Sch.

Bd., City of Richmond, 51 F.R.D. 139, 143.

13. Leadership and general supervision over ala 

public education is vested in the State Board of Education.

Art. VIII, § 3, Mich. Constitution of 1963. The duties of the 

State Board and superintendent include, but are not limited to, 

specifying the number of hours necessary to constitute a school 

day; approval until 1962 of school sites; approval of school 

construction plans; accreditation of schools; approval of loans

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«  #
based on state aid funds; review of suspensions and expulsions 

of individual students for misconduct [Op. Atty. Gen.,

July 7, 1970, No. 4705]; authority over transportation routes 

and disbursement of transportation funds; teacher certification 

the like. M.S.A. 15.1023 (1). State law provides review 

procedures from actions of local or intermediate districts 

(See M.S.A. 15.3442), with authority in the State Board to 

ratify, reject, amend or modify the actions of these inferior 

state agencies. See M.S.A. 15.3467; 15.1919(61); 15.1919 (68b); 

15.2299(1); 15.1961; 15.3402; Bridqehampton School District 

No. 2 Fractional of Carsonville, Mich, v, Supt. of Public 

Instruction, 323 Mich. 615. In general, the state 

superintendent is given the duty "[t]o do all things necessc.: 

to promote the welfare of the public schools and public 

educational instructions and provide proper educational 

facilities for the youth of the state." M.S.A. 15.3252.

See also M.S.A. 15.2299(57), providing in certain instances 

for reorganization of school districts.

14. State officials, including all of the defeadants,

are charged under, the Michigan constitution with the duty o r

providing pupils an education without discrimination with

respect to race. Art. VIII, § 2, Mich. Constitution of 1963.

Art. I, § 2, of the constitution provides:

"No person shall be denied the equal protection 
of the laws; nor shall any person be denied the 
enjoyment of his civil or political rights or be 
discriminated against in the exercise thereof 
because of religion, race, color or national 
origin. The legislature shall implement this 
section by appropriate legislation."

15. The State Department of Education has recently 

established an Equal Educational Opportunities section having

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#
responsibility to identify racially imbalanced school districts 

and develop desegregation plans. M.S.A. 15.3355 provides 

that no school or department shall be kept for any person or 

persons on account of race or color.

s/
16. The state further provides special funds to 

local districts for compensatory education which are administered 

on a per school basis under direct review of the State Board.

All other state aid is subject to fiscal review and accounting 

by the state. M.S.A. 15.1919. See also M.S.A. 15.1919 (68b), 

providing for special supplements to merged districts "for the 

purpose of bringing about uniformity of educational opportunity 

for all pupils of the district." The general consolidation law 

M.S.A. 15.3401 authorizes annexation for even noncontiguous 

school districts upon approval of the superintendent of public 

instruction and electors, as provided by law. op. Atty. Gen., 

Feb. 5, 1964, No. 4193. Consolidation with respect to so- 

called "first class" districts, i.e., Detroit, is generally 

treated as an annexation with the first class district being

the surviving entity. The law provides procedures covering 

all necessary considerations. M.S.A. 15.3184, 15.3186.

17. Where a pattern of violation of constitutional 

rights is established the affirmative obligation under the 

Fourteenth Amendment is imposed on not only individual school 

districts, but upon the State defendants in this case.

Cooper v. Aaron, 358, U.S. 1; Griffin v. County School Board

of Prince Edward County, 337 U.S. 218; U.S. v. State of Georgia, 

Civ. No. 12972 (N.D. Ga., December 17, 1970), rov'd on other 

grounds, 428 F.2d 377; Godwin v. Johnston County Board of 

Ed lie at ion, 301 F. Supp. 1337; I.ee v. Macon County Board of 

Education, 267 F. Supp. 458 (M.D. Ala.), aff'd sub nom.,

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•  •
Wallace v . U .5., 389 U.S. 215; Franklin v. Quitman County 

Board of Education, 288 F. Supp. 509; Smith v. North Carolina 

State Board of Education, No. 15,072 (4th Cir., June 14, 1971).

The foregoing constitutes our findings of fact and
/conclusions of law on the issue of segregation in the public 

schools of the City of Detroit.

Having found a de jure segregated public school 

system in operation in the City of Detroit, our first step, 

in considering what judicial remedial steps must be taken, 

is the consideration of intervening parent defendants' 

motion to add as parties defendant a great number of Michigan 

school districts located out county in Wayne County, and in 

Macomb and Oakland Counties, on the principal premise or 

ground that effective relief cannot be achieved or ordered in 

their absence. Plaintiffs have opposed the motion to join 

the additional school districts, arguing that the presence 

of the State defendants is sufficient and all that is required, 

even if, in shaping a remedy, the affairs of these other 

districts will be affected.

In considering the motion to add the listed school 

districts we pause to note that the proposed action has to 

do with relief. Having determined that the circumstances of 

the case require judicial intervention and equitable relief, 

it would be improper for us to act on this motion until the 

other parties to the action have had an opportunity to submit 

their proposals for desegregation. Accordingly, we shall not 

rule on the motion to add parties at this time. Considered 

as a plan for desegregation the motion is lacking in spccifity

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and is framed in the broadest general terms. The moving party 

may wish to amend its proposal and resubmit it as a com­

prehensive plan of desegregation.

In order that the further proceedings in this cause 

may be conducted on a reasonable time schedule, and because 

the views of counsel respecting further proceedings cannot but 

be of assistance to them and to the Court, this cause will be 

set down for pre-trial conference on the matter of relief.

The conference will be held in our Courtroom in the City of 

Detroit at ten o'clock in the morningj October 4, 1971.

' DATED: September 27 , 1971.

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