Final Order

     [||da660dff-43e3-47a4-82de-f4ffd9815dde||] /. Swann v. Charlotte-Mechklenburg Bd. of Educ. 
  

a4 In 1972 Fourth Circuit affirmed district court's further 
modifications to the decree affirmed by the Supreme Court. We are 
watching things, and are proceeding by way of a motion for further 
relief to deal with discriminatory application of discipline against 
black students. The school board has appealed Judge McMillan's 
latest order designed to maintain a unitary system. (J. L. CHAMBERS, 

Charlotte, N.C.; J. NABRIT, 111, WN. CHACHKIN)  



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IN THE Bronc: COURT OF THE oxzriifsrames Li. # 

FOR TH... WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH C7 POLINA, / £ 

Charlotte Division 827 a YG . 4 

Civil No. 1974 al Ta iY 

  

JAMES F. SWANN, et al., Plaintiffs, 

—yg 

THE CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG BOARD OF 

EDUCATION, et al., 

) 
) 
) : 

3 FINAL ORDER 

) 
) (SWANN SONG) 

efendants. 

of 

on July 10, 1974, defendants filed a report covering certain 

changes in the proposed 1974-75 pupil assignment plan, and requested. 

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— Pp J fn ata ara stands ral Bem Rem, he al on Bd BE Jn 1 I “Sv TTY 3 A ~ Fy Le Lh Be adh BF Fs ey Sy han wa pte uh 

an oraer approving Tae Icy 11sec plan unaer specliiied CONGITIGNS, diil 

expressing appreciation to the Board, the Citizens Advisory Group 

and the school staff people and others who had worked to make xt 

» _.. assuming and believing that no action by 

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Since early iJ; Lhe Ca se has peen guiet. No new or old 

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issues have been raised by the litigants or decided by the court. 

The new Board has taken a more positive attitude toward desegregation 

and has at last openly supported affirmative action to cope with 

recurrent racial problems in pupil assignment. Though continuing 

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probiems remalil, 4s Hallgoved:s ITOmM DPLEViOUS aliiVvVT GAabliiaahisizaciisiay 

y an ykelligentl y addressing these problems 

without court intervention. It is time, in the tenor of the previous 

order, to be "closing the suit as an active matter of litigation ..." 

Dismissal is neither usual nor correct in a case like this where 

continuing injunctive or mandatory relief has been required. Facts 

and issues once decided on their merits ought, generally, to remain 

    

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decided. This case contains many orders of continaing effect, 

and could be re-opened upon proper showing that those orders 

are not being observed. The court does not anticipate any action 

by the defendants to justify a re-opening; does not anticipate 

any motion by plaintiffs to re-open; od does not intend lightly 

to grant any such motion if made. This order intends Chorotore 

to close the file; to leave the HE 00 operation of the 

schools to the Board, which assumed that burden after the latest 

election; and to express again a deep appreciation to the Board 

pupil assignment of course remains. So, also, does the duty to 

comply with constitutional and other legal requirements respecting 

other forms of racial discrimination. 

Chosts continue to walk. For example, sone 

here und elsewhere are interpreting Professor James Coleman's 

latest "dil 

their duty to apply the law in urban school segregation cases. 

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Coleman is worried about "white flight," they say; school desegre 

gation depends on Coleman; therefore the courts. should bow out; 

"cessante ratlone, cessat ipsa lex,” they say. 
  

The local School Board members have not followed that siren. 

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Perhaps it is because they realize that this court's orders, 

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starting with the first order of April 23, 1969, are based, not 

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upon the theories of statisticians, but upon the Const 

mitted States nd because they recall and are prepared to follow 

  

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the law of this case which, as to Coleman, is contained in the 

  

order of August 3, 1970 (318 F.Supp. 786, 794, W.D.N.C. 1970), 

as follows: 

  

"The duty to desegregate schools does not 
depend upon the Coleman report, nor on any 

particular racial proportion of students 

[emphasis from original] .—The essence of 

the Brown decision is that segregation 

implies inferiority, reduces incentive, 

reduces morale, reduces opportunity for 

association and breadth of experience, and 

that the segregated education itself is 

inherently unequal. The tests which show 

+h ranr narfarmance of seareaated children 

  
  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

school system, of this and other questions which have already been 

exhaustively (and expensively) litigated and definitively answered. 

Wit vateful appreciation to all who have made possible this 

court's graduation from Swann, it is therefore 

: ORDERED: 

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1. That this cause be removed from the active docket. 

2. That the file be closed. 

This // day. of July, 1975. 

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74 
Lh James B. McMillan 
nited States District Judge 

  

Certified to be a true and 

corroot copy of the original. 

U. S. Distriet Court 

3. Toliver Davis, Cr 7 

{ Wgstern Dipt oof KH. BL AA 
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By Lid tic ell 
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| eputy_ Clerk 

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