Raney v. Board of Education of The Gould School District Record

    R E C O R D

1  n\Uh BtnttB (Enurt of Appeals
F or t h e  E ig h t h  C ircu it  

No. 18527 
Civil

A r t h u r  L ee R a n e y , et al.,
Appellants,

—v.—

T h e  B oard of E ducation  of t h e  G ould S chool D istrict ,
a Public Body Corporate, et al.,

Appellees.

appeal  from  decision of th e  u nited  states district court

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS, PINE BLUFF DIVISION

J ack  Greenberg 
J am es  M. N abrit , III 
M ic h ael  M eltsner  
M ich ael  J . H en ry

10 Columbus Circle
New York, New York 10019

J o h n  W . W alker

1304-B Wright Avenue 
Little Rock, Arkansas 72206

Attorneys for Appellants



I N D E X

PAGE

Docket Entries ..........—...... ... .................-....... ................  1

Complaint (filed September 7, 1965) ...........................  3

Answer (filed November 6, 1965) ................... - ............ 9

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J. 
(filed April 26, 1966) ............................... ..................  12

Order of Dismissal (filed April 26, 1966) ............. ......  25

Transcript of Hearing of November 24, 1965 ............  26

Plaintiffs’ Witnesses:
T. Raymond Sage—

Direct ...............................................—-........ -  28
Cross .............................. - ...........-......................  77
Redirect ...............   103
Recross ......................     I l l
By the Court ......................     136

Horace Dalton—

Direct .................. -.............................................  112
Cross ..................................— ........................... 118

Mrs. Carrie Dilworth—
Rebuttal—Direct .....................-........................  130
Rebuttal—Cross ....................-........................... 134



11

PAGE

Defendants’ Witness:

W. C. Sheppard, Jr.—
Direct ................................................ -......... -.....  121
Cross ..............................................-....................  126
Rebuttal—Direct ......................-......... -....... -  135
Rebuttal—Cross  .........................-...................  136

Reporter’s Certificate .......... .......... -..............-..........-.....  HO



In th e

Ittitrft itstrirt (tort
E astern  D istrict  of A rkansas 

P in e  B lu ff  D ivision  

Civil Action No. PB-65-C-45

A r th u r  L ee R an ey  et at.,

v.
Plaintiffs,

T he  B oard of E ducation  of th e  G ould S chool D istrict , 
a public body corporate, et al.,

Defendants.

Docket Entries

9- 7-65 Complaint filed. Summons issued.
9_11_65 Motion for preliminary injunction filed by 

plaintiffs.
9-25-65 Motion to quash service filed by defendants.

Statement in support of motion to quash filed.
Separate Answer of Harold Pearson filed.
Statement in opposition to motion for pre­
liminary injunction filed.

11_ 6-65 Answer of the Board of Education of the Gould 
School Board filed.

11-24-65 Trial to the Court before Young, J.
Motion to change defendant from Board of 
Education to Gould Special School District 
granted.



2

Docket Entries

Motion by plaintiff to dismiss Harold Pearson, 
Chief of Police, as a party defendant, granted.

Testimony completed at 3 :00 p.m. and case 
taken under advisement.

11-29-65 Order by Young, J. dismissing Harold Pearson 
filed.

4- 26-66 Memorandum Opinion by Young, J. filed.
Order in accordance with opinion dismissing 
complaint filed.

5- 26-66 Notice of Appeal filed by plaintiffs.



3

Complaint

(Filed September 7, 1965)

I

The jurisdiction of this court is invoked pursuant to 
the provisions of Title 28 U.S.C., Section 1342(3) (4). This 
is an action in equity, authorized by law, Title 42, U.S.C., 
Sections 1981 and 1983. The rights, privileges and im­
munities sought to be secured by this action are rights, 
privileges and immunities guaranteed by the due process 
and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amend­
ment to the Constitution of the United States, as herein­
after more fully appears.

II

This is a proceeding for a preliminary and permanent 
injunction enjoining defendant Board of Education of the 
Gould School District, employees, its agents, successors, 
attorneys and all persons acting in concert with them from :

(1) requiring minor plaintiffs and all other similarly 
situated to attend the all Negro Field High School for the 
1965-66 School term; and

(2) providing public school facilities for Negro pupils 
in Gould, Arkansas which are inferior to those provided 
for white pupils.

This is also a proceeding for a preliminary and x̂ erma- 
nent injunction enjoining defendant Harold Pearson, Chief 
of Police of the City of Gould, Arkansas and Deputy 
Sheriff of Lincoln County, Arkansas, and the members, 
employees, agents or attorneys of said Board from threat­
ening or intimidating plaintiffs in the assertion of their 
rights secured to them by the Fourteenth Amendment to 
the United States Constitution.



4

III

Plaintiffs in this case are Negro citizens of the United 
States and the state of Arkansas who reside in the city 
of Gould, Lincoln County, Arkansas.

Minor plaintiffs are pupils in grades five, ten and 
eleven in the Gould school system who have been refused 
or denied admission to the predominantly white public 
schools by defendant school district.

Plaintiffs bring this action on their own behalf and on 
behalf of all others similarly situated pursuant to Rule 
23(a)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. There 
are common questions of law and fact involved which af­
fect the rights of other Negro pupils who are so numerous 
as to make it impracticable to bring them all individually 
before this Court but a common relief is sought and the 
interests of the class are adequately represented by plain­
tiffs.

IV
Defendant Board of Education of the Gould, Arkansas 

School District is a public body corporate organized and 
operating under the laws of the state of Arkansas. T. Ray­
mond Sage is the Superintendent of Schools of said school 
district.

Defendant Harold Pearson is the Chief of Police of the 
City of Gould, Arkansas and a deputy sheriff of Lincoln 
County, Arkansas.

V
Defendant Board of Education of the Gould School 

District operates the Gould Public Schools which includes: 
(a) The Gould high school and elementary school attended 
primarily by white pupils and staffed by all white teachers;

Complaint



5

and (b) the Field High School and elementary school at­
tended by Negro pupils and staffed by Negro teachers.

VI
Defendant Board of Education of the Gould School Dis­

trict permits a number of white pupils who live outside 
the district to attend white Gould Public School. Such 
pupils are “bussed” into the white Gould public schools.

VII
Prior to September, 1965, Defendant operated a com­

pletely segregated school system for white and Negro 
pupils. However, in order to comply with the guidelines of 
the Office of Education of the United States Department of 
Health, Education and Welfare promulgated pursuant to 
Title IV, Section 405 of Public Law 88-352 known as the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, and to prevent the cutoff of 
federal funds to it. Defendant submitted a “freedom of 
choice” compliance plan to said Office of Education by 
which defendant agreed to desegregate all grades this 
fall. Said Office of Education approved the Gould desegre­
gation plan.

VIII

During the summer prior to the opening of school in 
September, 1965, approximately 100 Negro pupils “chose” 
white schools in defendant Gould School District in all 
grades. However, on or about September 3, 1965, defend­
ants’ School Superintendent Sage advised plaintiffs and 
other persons similarly situated in grades five, ten and 
eleven by newspaper notice and some by letter as well that 
Negro pupils’ preferences for the white Gould schools in

Complaint



6

those grades would not be honored because of overcrowd­
ing.

Plaintiffs and others similarly situated were thus rele­
gated to the all Negro Field School.

IX
The all-Negro Field High School is an old, wooden 

frame structure in ill-repair. It has no laboratory facili­
ties and unsuitable toilet facilities located outside of the 
building. The library consists of two well worn sets of 
encyclopedias. It is rat infested with large cracks in the 
walls, floors and ceilings. Because of these conditions, the 
Field School is unaccredited by the Arkansas State De­
partment of Education.

Complaint

X
The predominantly white Gould High School and ele­

mentary school is a new brick structure which has ade­
quate laboratory and science facilities, a workshop, an 
adequate library, indoor bathroom facilities, central heat­
ing and air conditioning and many other facilities which 
the Field School does not have. The Gould school is rated 
(A) by the Arkansas State Department of Education.

XI
On or about September 5, 1965 plaintiffs and other 

Negroes made plans to discuss the problems of school 
segregation and the inadequacy of facilities at the Field 
School with Superintendent Sage. Upon learning of plain­
tiffs’ plans, the Chief of Police of Gould, Arkansas, Harold 
Pearson, who is also Deputy Sheriff of Lincoln County, 
Arkansas and a School Board member sought out and



7

threatened several of plaintiffs and/or several of those 
associated with them with bodily injury if they continued 
their protests against school segregation and the condi­
tions at the Field School.

Complaint

XII

Minor plaintiffs and members of their class have been 
denied and deprived by defendants of the rights secured 
to them by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United 
States Constitution solely because of their race or color. 
Plaintiffs have no plain, adequate or complete remedy at 
law to redress these wrongs and this suit for injunctive 
relief is the only means of securing adequate relief. Plain­
tiffs stand to suffer irreparable injury and damage from 
defendants unless defendants are enjoined by this court 
from continuing the practices herein complained about.

W herefore , Plaintiffs respectfully pray that this court 
advance this cause on the docket, order a speedy hearing 
at the earliest practicable date, and upon such hearing, 
enter a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining 
defendant Board of Education from:

(1) requiring minor plaintiffs and all other similarly 
situated to attend the all-Negro Field School for the 1965- 
66 School Term;

(2) providing public school facilities for Negro pupils 
in Gould, Arkansas which are inferior to those provided 
for white pupils;

(3) expending any funds for operation or improvement 
of the predominantly white Gould Public Schools until 
and unless the Field School is made substantially equal in



8

facilities, equipment, curriculum, advantages, opportuni­
ties, etc. to tire predominantly white Gould schools; and

(4) otherwise operating a racially segregated school 
system.

Plaintiffs pray that this court enjoin defendants from 
intimidating, threatening or, in any way, interfering with 
the exercise of rights secured to plaintiffs and members of 
their class by the Constitution of the United States of 
America.

Plaintiffs further pray that this court allow them their 
costs herein, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and such other 
additional or alternative relief as may appear to the court 
to be equitable and just.

Respectfully submitted,

/ s /  J oh n  W . W alker

J o h n  W . W alker

1304-B Wright Ave. 
Little Rock, Arkansas

Complaint



9

Answer of the Board of Education 
of the Gould School District

(Filed November 6, 1965)

For its Answer to the Complaint of Plaintiffs, the Board 
of Education of the Gould School District, objecting to the 
Court’s Order made at pre-trial conference on November 
4, 1965 denying its Motion to Quash Service, and without 
waiving any of the jurisdictional questions raised by such 
Motion, states:

1.
That the jurisdictional allegations of paragraph I and II 

of the Complaint require no answer, but to the extent that 
they imply that Plaintiffs have been denied any constitu­
tional rights by this Defendant they are denied.

2.
The allegations of paragraph III with reference to the 

residence of the Plaintiffs and their status with respect to 
the public schools are admitted. It is denied that Plaintiffs 
are members of a class so as to be authorized to prosecute 
this as a class action. It is denied that the class which they 
purport to represent is so numerous as to make it imprac­
ticable to bring them all individually before the Court. It 
is denied that such purported class is adequately repre­
sented by Plaintiffs.

3.
It is admitted that Defendant Harold Pearson is the 

Chief of Police of the City of Gould and a Deputy Sheriff of 
Lincoln County, Arkansas, and that T. Raymond Sage is 
Superintendent of Schools of Gould Special School District



10

Ansioer of the Board of Education 
of the Gould School District

of Lincoln County. It is denied that the Board of Educa­
tion of Gould, Arkansas, School District is a public body 
corporate organized and operating under the laws of the 
State of Arkansas.

4.

The allegations of paragraphs Y  and VI are admitted.

5.

The allegations of paragraph YII are admitted except 
that it is denied that the sole purpose of formulating a 
desegregation plan was for the purpose of qualifying for 
federal funds. It is also denied that the Office of Education 
approved the desegregation plan as initially submitted.

6.

The allegations of paragraph VIII are admitted.

7.
It is admitted that the Field High School is an old wooden 

frame structure. All other allegations of paragraph IX 
are denied.

8.

It is admitted that the Gould High School and Elementary 
School are located in brick or block buildings, have indoor 
bathroom facilities, and that the High School has a Class 
A  rating with the State Department of Education. All 
other allegations of paragraph X are denied.



11

Answer of the Board of Education 
of the Gould School District

9.

The allegations of paragraphs X I and X II are denied, 
and it is specifically and separately denied that Plaintiffs 
will suffer any irreparable injury or damage unless this 
Defendant is enjoined by this Court.

W herefore, this Defendant renews its Motion To Quash 
Service for the reasons set forth therein, and without waiv­
ing said Motion in the alternative prays that the Court 
dismiss the Complaint, and that this Defendant have 
judgment for its costs herein expended, and for such other 
or different relief as may appear to the Court to be equi­
table and just.

S m it h , W illiam s , F riday & B owen

By / s /  R obert V. L ig h t

By / s /  R obert V . L ig h t

1100 Boyle Building 
Little Rock, Arkansas 

Attorneys for the Board of Education 
of the Gould School District



12

(Filed April 26, 1966)

The plaintiffs in this case are Negro children who are 
pupils in grades five, ten and eleven in the Public School 
System of Gould, Arkansas. This action was brought by 
their parents and next friends and is a class action seek­
ing an injunction enjoining the Board of Education of the 
Gould School District from (1) requiring the minor plain­
tiffs and all others similarly situated to attend the all- 
Negro Field School for the 1965-66 school term, (2) pro­
viding public school facilities for Negro pupils in Gould, 
Arkansas, which are inferior to those provided for white 
pupils, (3) expending any funds for operation or improve­
ment of the predominantly white Gould Public Schools 
until and unless the Field School is made substantially 
equal in facilities, equipment, curriculum, advantages, etc. 
to the predominantly white Gould Schools, (4) building 
any new facilities to replace Field High School at any 
location other than on or adjacent to the grounds of the 
Gould Public Schools, and from (5) otherwise operating a 
racially segregated school system.

The defendant school board claims that it is doing every­
thing possible to correct the very things plaintiffs are 
complaining of and that no injunction is required or war­
ranted, therefore the ease should be dismissed.

The Gould School District encompasses about eighty 
square miles of argricultural land in Lincoln County in 
Southeast Arkansas. Almost 20,000 acres of this land is 
tax exempt because the Arkansas State Penitentiary is 
located within the district. It is a rural and agricultural 
area. There are no significant industries within the dis­
trict, and Gould, with a population of 1,210, is the district’s 
only incorporated town. In the 1964-65 school year the

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



13

district derived $56,530 from its millage levy on the as­
sessed value of the real and personal property in the 
district and most of the rest of its budget of over $200,000 
was received from various programs of the State and 
Federal Government. It is obvious from these facts and 
from other testimony given at the hearing of this case 
that this school district is a financially poor one.

The population of the district of about 3,000 consists of 
1,800 Negroes and 1,200 white people. There are approxi­
mately 880 students in the system and 580 of these are 
Negro. Prior to 1965 the school board operated two school 
systems from grade one through twelve on a racially 
segregated basis. The Field Elementary School and the 
Field High School were attended by Negro children only. 
Th Gould Elementary School and the Gould High School 
had only white students. In the spring of 1965 the de­
fendant school board unanimously voted to accept a 
desegregation plan which provided for the integration of 
all twelve grades of the system in the 1965-66 school year 
in accordance with a “Freedom of Choice” plan.1

After the students and their parents had expressed their 
choice of schools it appeared that there would be over­
crowding in the Gould Schools in grades five, ten, and 
eleven. The school authorities discussed the problem with 
the appropriate authorities of the Department of Health, 
Education and Welfare and it was agreed that it would be 
better for the school to postpone the granting of the free­
dom of choice in these grades for one year. However, as 
many Negro children in these three grades as possible who

Note 1 : The “ Freedom of Choice”  plan in this case is of the same 
type that the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit indicated it would 
approve in Kemp v. Beasley, 352 F.2d 14 (8th Cir. 1965), therefore it 
is unnecessary to explain the details o f the plan in this opinion.

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



14

chose the previously all-white school were accepted in 
that school on the basis of geographic proximity of their 
home to the school. The plan as amended was approved by 
the federal agency.

In other words, all students in the district were accepted 
in the school of their choice except in the fifth, tenth, and 
eleventh grades. In these grades some forty Negro pupils 
expressed a preference to attend the Gould Schools and 
twelve of them were accepted. The remaining students 
were assigned to the Field Schools and it is this group 
that is represented by the plaintiffs in this case.

At the trial plaintiffs offered testimony concerning al­
leged discrimination within the district which they con­
tend this Court should correct by use of its injunctive 
powers.

One of plaintiffs’ contentions is that the Court should 
enjoin the defendant school board from maintaining a 
racially segregated school system. But the testimony dis­
closes that the school board is no longer maintaining such 
a system. The desegregation plan which it has adopted 
and which has been approved by the Department of 
Health, Education and Welfare has brought about more 
than token integration even though it has been in opera­
tion only one year. There are 71 Negro students and 298 
white students attending the previously all-white school 
and there will undoubtedly be more Negro students in 
this school next year. The Negro students are participat­
ing on the school athletic teams and taking part in several 
other extra-curricular activities at the school. Further­
more, in the school term beginning September 1966 it is 
the plan of the district to honor the preference of all 
children in the three grades to which the Choice plan was 
only partially applicable this year.

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



15

Another contention of the plaintiffs is that the school 
board is discriminating against Negroes by paying Negro 
teachers salaries lower than those paid to white teachers. 
The testimony revealed that the base salary paid to 
Negro teachers is $3,870, while the base salary for white 
teachers is $4,050.00. The range of salaries for Negro 
teachers is from $3,870.00 to $4,500.00, and the range for 
white teachers is $4,050.00 to $5,580.00. The superintend­
ent of the schools testified that he was well aware of the 
differences in salaries paid to the teachers of different 
races, and he said that the historical reason for this differ­
ence was simply the law of supply and demand. Because 
of the larger supply of Negro teachers he was able to hire 
them at lower salaries than those demanded by white 
teachers. He stated that five years ago, when he was first 
employed by the school system, the difference in the base 
salaries was $600. In the last five years the difference has 
been lowered to $180. The reason the salaries cannot be 
equalized before next year is purely a financial one. The 
budget for the 1965-66 school year is practically exhausted 
and there are no funds available for this or any other 
purpose.2 In the course of his testimony, the superintend­
ent assured the Court that the salaries for Negro and white 
teachers for the 1966-67 school year would be equal.

The primary complaint of the plaintiffs is that they are 
being discriminated against because the Field Schools to 
which they have been assigned are grossly inferior to the 
Gould Public Schools. They show the inferiority of the 
Fields Schools by citing several examples. Some of these

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.

Note 2 : The total received for all school purposes this year was 
$225,000. The budget expenditure is $221,000. This is a typical year. 
The surplus remaining from last year was $1,200.



16

are: (1) the Field High School is a frame building erected 
in 1924 which is in a poor state of repair, with holes in the 
floor and cracks in the wall, while the Gould High School 
is located in a brick and concrete block building only two 
years old; (2) the Gould High School has an “A rating 
from the Arkansas Department of Education, while the 
Field High School is unaccredited; (3) the restroom facili­
ties at the Field High School are located in a separate 
building, causing students to walk outdoors to reach the 
restroom, while at the Gould High School the restroom 
facilities are located in the school building itself; (4) the 
Field High School is heated with upright gas heaters, while 
the Gould Schools are heated with central heat; (5) the 
science laboratory facilities at Field High School are in­
ferior to those at Gould High School; (6) the library facili­
ties at Field High are very poor, with few books and no 
full-time librarian, while the Gould School library con­
tains almost 1,000 books and has a librarian; (7) there is 
no hot lunch program at the Field Schools, while the Gould 
Schools have an air-conditioned cafetorium; and, finally 
(8) courses in journalism and agriculture are not offered at 
the Field High School, while they are taught at the Gould 
High School.

The defendant admits that facilities at the Field High 
School are inferior to those at the Gould Schools, that the 
situation is a bad one, and that a new school building is 
needed. It claims that there are no funds available at the 
present time with which to build such a school and that the 
school district does not have sufficient borrowing power to 
secure enough money for such a project. To borrow that 
much money the school district would need a new bond 
issue, but since the present millage is at 47 (the maximum

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



17

allowable under State law),3 new millage cannot be added 
to finance such a bond issue. However, one of the present 
outstanding bond issues will be paid off by January of 
1967, and the nine mills used to finance that issue can be 
transferred to a new issue. The money obtained through 
this new bond issue has long been earmarked by the board 
for the construction of a modern facility to replace Field 
High School. Therefore, it appears that the defendant 
school board realizes the need for a new school building 
and is doing all that it is financially able to do toward filling 
this need.

On the other hand, the defendant does not admit the 
degree of inequality between the schools is as great as 
plaintiffs claim. They contend that although the Field 
High School building is in very poor condition and is in­
ferior to the Gould High School building, the same is not 
true for the rest of the buildings in the Field School System. 
The evidence shows that in the last fifteen years, or at 
least since 1954, over seventy-five per cent of all money 
available for construction has been spent on the Negro 
schools. In fact, the total building expenditures for the 
Negro schools since 1954 are in excess of $138,000. On the 
other hand, the only money spent on capital improvements 
at the Gould School was from proceeds of an insurance 
policy when the school building burned late in 1963. The 
new building was built entirely with the funds from this 
insurance policy.4 The Field Elementary School is a mod-

Note 3: Under Arkansas law a school district may not issue bonds 
in an amount in excess o f 15% of the district’s assessed valuation of 
property located within the district. Gould has reached that limit.

Note 4 : A  Teaclierage, consisting of two cottages for occupancy by 
teachers, was constructed on the Field campus a year or two ago. This 
was financed locally, and the monthly payments to pay the loan come 
from rent paid by the teachers.

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



18

ern brick and concrete block building built in 1954 with 
classrooms added as late as 1965. The gymnasium for the 
Field Elementary and High Schools is a modern concrete 
block building with excellent restroom, dressing room, and 
shower facilities, as well as a fine gymnasium and audito­
rium. The gymnasium at the Gould School is an old frame 
building in poor repair, with inadequate and unsightly 
dressing room and restroom facilities. The home economics 
buildings at both the schools are old buildings which the 
citizens of the school district have helped repair and deco­
rate, and which are of approximately the same quality. 
Although it was never definitely established just what 
scientific laboratory facilities the Field High School has, 
it is evident from the testimony that they are inadequate 
and practically nonexistent. However, the laboratory facili­
ties at the Gould High School would hardly be considered 
adequate or satisfactory. The laboratory is located in an 
old concrete block building that was once used as a bar- 
beque house. For most of the experiments there is only 
enough equipment for the teacher to use at a demonstra­
tion desk and sink. According to the evidence, no build­
ing on either campus is heated by central heat, and in 
the last two years the same amount of money has been 
allocated to each of the libraries. The defendant admits 
that the Field Schools do not have a hot lunch program 
or an agriculture department but claims that federal aid 
is being sought, and the superintendent of schools as­
sured the Court that both programs would be established 
in the Field Schools by the end of this year. Defendant 
also states that the reason some courses such as journalism 
are taught in Gould School and not in Field School is that 
they are elective courses and are not taught unless there 
is a sufficient demand for them. Therefore the defendant

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



19

claims that although conditions at the Field High School 
are poor, there is not a large degree of inequality between 
the two school systems.

During the course of the hearing on this matter, after 
the defendant had admitted the inferiority of the Field 
High School and had set forth its proposal for building a 
new facility, plaintiffs moved in open court to amend 
their petition for an injunction to include enjoining the 
defendant from building any new facilities to replace 
Field High School at any location other than on or ad­
jacent to the grounds of the Gould Public Schools. This, 
it is believed, is the only real issue remaining in the case. 
The Court granted the motion, and evidence was heard 
on both sides of this question. The Court also asked 
counsel for briefs on the question of whether or not the 
Court could or should order the school district to build 
its proposed new facilities at any particular location.

It is plaintiffs’ contention that the building of a new 
high school at the site of the old Field High School or 
on the Field Elementary School grounds would promote 
and encourage segregation in the school system. Plain­
tiffs contend that if the new high school was built at one 
of these locations, only Negro pupils would request that 
they be assigned there. Plaintiffs also say that in fact 
this is the intention of the school board. They point out 
that at the hearing the superintendent of schools stated 
that probably only Negro children would select the new 
high school and plaintiff argues that this shows that it is 
the school board’s intention to create a “Negro high 
school” and not just another high school for the district. 
Plaintiffs argue that it is a breach of plaintiffs’ consti­
tutional rights to allow defendant school board to carry

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



20

out a construction program which is designed to bring 
about or further segregation in the school system.

Plaintiffs also contend that it would be unsound for a 
school district in the financial condition of the Gould School 
District to maintain separate school facilities for Negro 
children. Such a plan would entail considerable duplica­
tion and would dilute the quality of education which 
could be offered to both white and Negro students by a 
school district of this size.

The defendant contends that the management or ad­
ministration of the schools has been committed to local 
school officials and is not within the province of the Court 
and that selection of the location of a new school facility 
is an administrative or managerial decision which should 
be left to those officials whose duty is to determine what 
is best educationally and administratively for the school 
system. The defendant claims that there are several rea­
sons why it is unsound to locate the new high school at 
the site insisted upon by plaintiffs and which support 
the board’s selection of a site adjacent to the Field Ele­
mentary School. These facts are (1) that the school dis­
trict already owns enough land at the Field Elementary 
School to accommodate the new high, school building, (2) 
the district does not own sufficient land at the site of the 
Gould High School for this purpose, (3) additional land 
near the Gould High School is not for sale and would 
have to be acquired by condemnation at a high price since 
it is being subdivided into residential lots, (4) the new 
gymnasium (which has been referred to above) was' 
built on the grounds of the Field Elementary School to 
accommodate both elementary and high school students in 
anticipation of the location of the new high school on that 
campus, (5) that the location of the schools in opposite

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E, Young, D.J.



21

ends of town and on opposite sides of a heavily traveled 
IT. S. highway is desirable for the safety of the children 
and for obtaining the educationally advantageous concept 
of “neighborhood schools.”

The question before the Court is actually two pronged. 
First, is this Court authorized to tell the school board 
where to build or not to build a new school building, and 
second, should the Court do so under the circumstances 
in this ease? These questions are of first instance before 
this Court, and in fact there is very little authority from 
any jurisdiction.

In the “landmark” civil rights cases concerning school 
integration the courts leave no doubt that segregation 
is and must be a thing of the past. They tell the courts 
that there can no longer be “Negro schools” and “White 
schools” and that the courts cannot permit a state to 
support “ segregated schools through any arrangement, 
management, funds or property. . . . ” Cooper v. Aaron, 
358 TT.S. 1. In a general way these cases give this and 
all district courts the authority to take what steps are 
necessary to insure that there is an end to segregation in 
our schools.

At the same time these cases also contain language 
which seems to recognize a limit to the courts’ authoriza­
tion to deal in school affairs. In Brown v. Board of Ed­
ucation of Topeka, 349 U.S. 294, the court said:

“ school authorities have the primary responsibility 
for elucidating, assessing, and solving these problems; 
courts will have to consider whether the action of 
school authorities constitutes good faith implementa­
tion of the governing constitutional principles.”

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



22

In Briggs v. Elliot, 132 F.Supp. 776, 777 (E.D. S.Car. 
1955), a three-judge district court interpreting Brown 
said,

“Having said this, it is important that we point out 
exactly what the Supreme Court has decided and 
what it has not decided in this case. It has not decided 
that the federal courts are to take over or regulate 
the public schools of the state.”

And this Court in Aaron v. Cooper, 164 F.Supp. 325, 334 
(1959) stated:

“It is not the duty or function of the Federal Court to 
regulate or take over and operate the public schools. 
That is still the duty of the duly state-created school 
authorities.”

These cases make it apparent that there is a limit to the 
court’s authority to deal in school matters, although they 
do not say what that limit is.

In Board of Public Instruction of Duval County, Fla, v. 
Braxton, 326 F.2d 616 (1964), the Court of Appeals for 
the Fifth Circuit approved an injunction issued by Judge 
Simpson of the District Court for the Middle District of 
Florida in which the school authorities were enjoined 
from operating a compulsory biracial school system, main­
taining dual attendance areas, assigning pupils and teach­
ers on the basis of color, and from

“Approving budgets, making available funds, approv­
ing employment contracts and construction programs, 
and approving policies, curricula and programs de­
signed to perpetuate, maintain or support a school 
system operated on a racially segregated basis.”

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



23

Although that injunction does not go as far as plaintiffs 
have asked for in this case, it does go further into the
realm of school administration than any other court has
gone. Perhaps some of the factors that the case dealt
with should be pointed out in that they may limit the
scope of the decision.

In that case the court was dealing with a school system 
that, some eight years after the second Brown decision, 
had done nothing toward bringing an end to segregation. 
In fact, the board was still maintaining and planning to 
continue to maintain separate systems for colored and 
white children with dual attendance areas. The court, of 
course, was trying to enjoin all this type action. There­
fore it did enjoin all the policies of the board including its 
future construction policies which were “designed to per­
petuate, maintain or support a school system operated 
on a racially segregated basis.”

In June of 1965 this Court in Yarbrough v. Hulhert-West 
Memphis School Dist. No. 4, 243 F. Supp. 65, 71, said:

“ . . . the basic responsibility and authority for oper­
ating the schools in a constitutional manner rest upon 
school boards and school authorities rather than the 
courts. The question is not what the court would do 
if it were operating the schools, but whether the 
defendants are proceeding in a permissible manner 
from a constitutional standpoint.”

This still seems to be the better or most well reasoned role 
for the court. It should be an ameliorative or corrective 
body rather than an initiating or policy-making one. Once 
the school board has made a decision to take a certain 
action in the administration of the schools, then it be­

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



24

comes the Court’s duty to determine whether or not this 
action is constitutional.

However, this Court is not prepared to state that there 
might not be circumstances under which the Court would 
be justified in taking action such as that the plaintiff is 
asking for in this case. Assuming without deciding that 
this is an area of school policy-making which the court 
could enter to protect the civil rights of the school dis­
trict’s citizens, this Court does not feel that the circum­
stances of this case merit such action.

Here the school board has begun a desegregation pro­
gram for all twelve grades without having been ordered 
to do so by a court. The delay in the program for the 
three grades involved in this case is temporary and future 
plans call for complete integration. The fact that the 
Negro children who are attending the previously all-white 
schools are participating in the school’s curricular and 
extra-curricular activities seems to indicate that this plan 
is more than a pretense or sham to meet the minimum re­
quirements of the law.

The availability of campus area in one place and not 
the other, the lack of funds to procure more land, and the 
necessity of locating the new high school near the exist­
ing gymnasium designed to accommodate the high school 
students are all valid reasons for the administration’s deci­
sion as to the location of the new high school. There is 
no reason to assume that only Negro students will attend 
the new high school. In fact, it is a virtual certainty with 
the progress of integration, building space limitations 
alone will insure that the new school will be integrated. 
Certainly these reasons, coupled with the school board’s 
recent initiative toward integrating the schools, do not 
indicate that the board’s plans are solely motivated by a

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.



25

desire to perpetuate or maintain or support segregation 
in tlie school system. Therefore, the Court will not usurp 
the normal managerial prerogative of the school hoard to 
the extent of determining where the new building will be 
located.

Memorandum Opinion of Gordon E. Young, D.J.

CONCLUSION

Practically all of the questions or problems in this case 
stem from one major source—the school district has a 
serious lack of funds. The main problem, of course, is 
the inferiority of the Field High School. However, if the 
Court ordered the school board to build a new facility to­
morrow the board would be powerless to act. It simply 
does not have the money to do so. It is obviously not the 
purpose of an injunction to order someone to do something 
he is already doing or something which is impossible for 
him to perform. Therefore, this Court can see no reason 
for the requested injunction to be issued. The petition 
will be denied and the case dismissed.

Dated: April 26, 1966.
G ordon E. Y oung 

United States District Judge

Order of Dismissal

(Filed April 26, 1966)
In accordance with memorandum opinion filed this date, 

the complaint is dismissed.
Dated: April 26, 1966.

/ s /  G ordon E. Y oung 
United States District Judge



26

Transcript of Hearing of November 24 , 1965
# # *  *  *

B e it  rem embered , that a hearing was had in the above- 
entitled and numbered cause, on its merits, before The 
Honorable Gordon E. Young, Judge of said Court, in the 
Federal Court Room, Federal Building, in the city of 
Little Rock, State of Arkansas, on November 24, 1965, 
beginning at the hour of nine-thirty A.M.

There were present at said time and place, the following 
appearances:

For the Plaintiffs: Mr. John W. Walker, of Little Rock, 
Arkansas.

For the Defendants: Mr. Robert V. Light, of the firm 
of Smith Williams Friday & Bowen, of Little Rock, 
Arkansas.

—3—
P r o c e e d i n g s

W h e reu po n , the following proceedings were had in open 
court in the presence of the Court and counsel for the 
respective parties:

The Court: Gentlemen, the case for trial is Arthur E. 
Raney, et al., Plaintiffs, vs. The Gould School District 
Board of Education. Are the plaintiffs ready Mr. Walker?

Mr. Walker: The plaintiffs are ready, Your Honor.
The Court: Are the defendants ready Mr. Light?
Mr. Light: Your Honor, still reserving the position we 

took on the Motion to Quash, we are ready to proceed.
The Court: Oh, that’s addressed to the fact that the 

Board of Education was named as the defendant instead 
of the members of the School Board?

Mr. Light: Essentially, yes, Your Honor. It’s two-fold, 
one is that the Board of Education is not a body-corporate,



27

Colloquy

subject to suit, the other is that no proper service has 
been had so as to bind the District or the Board.

—4-—
The Court: Who was service had on?
Mr. Light: On a member of the Board, Your Honor.
The Court: How many members of the Board are there, 

six?
Mr. Light: Five.
The Court: How many of them are here this morning?
Mr. Light: All of them.
The Court: All five of them are here. Well that Motion 

will be—I don’t know whether I denied it formally or not, 
but it will be denied.

Mr. Light: I have answered reciting that the Court 
overruled it at our pretrial conference.

The Court: All right. Thank you. Now, Mr. Walker, 
we have more than one defendant here. I believe we had 
some discussion about that at our conference. Do you re­
call?

Mr. Walker: Yes, sir.
—5—

The Court: Do you have a Motion to make in that re­
gard?

Mr. Walker: Yes, sir. I would like to preface it with the 
statement to the effect that under Arkansas law, the Gould 
School District is a body corporate and, as such, may sue 
and be sued. I would at this time like to move to amend 
our complaint and to have the corporate name of the de­
fendant changed in the complaint to the “ Gould Special 
School District of Lincoln County” . I think we had it listed 
as the “Board of Education of the Gould School District” . 
This is a technicality.

The Court: That will be granted.



28

Mr. Walker: We -would like to have at this time the 
defendant: Harold Pierson, wRo is Chief of Police of the 
City of Gould, and also a Deputy Sheriff of Lincoln County, 
Arkansas, dismissed as a party-defendant.

The Court: I ’m sure there’s no objection to that Mr.
Light!

Mr. Light: Not to that one.
The Court: The motion will he granted and the com­

plaint is dismissed insofar as it relates to Harold Pierson, 
Chief of Police of the City of Gould and Deputy Sheriff.

— 6—

Now, so that I don’t forget it, at your convenience, Mr. 
Light, would you mail me a short order so it will he on 
file dismissing the complaint as to him?

Mr. Light: Yes, sir.
The Court: It’s better to do it that way than simply to 

have it in this record which may or may not ever he 
written up.

Mr. Walker: That’s right. I would like to call at this 
time Mr. T. Raymond Sage, Superintendent of Schools of 
the Gould School District.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

W h e reu po n , T. R aym ond  S age, called as a witness on 
behalf of the plaintiffs being first duly sworn, testified as 
follows:

Direct Examination by Mr. Walker:

Q. Would you state your name please! A. T. Raymond 
Sage.

Q. What is your occupation, Mr. Sage? A. Superin­
tendent of Schools, Gould School District.

Q. How long have you been superintendent of Schools 
there in Gould! A. This is the fifth year.



29

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

—7—
Q. Would you tell us what your educational preparation 

is, Mr. Sage? A. Bachelor’s Degree from Hendrix College, 
Master’s Degree from the University of Arkansas.

Q. Now, I would like to have you tell the court—give 
the court some statistics about the Gould School District. 
What is the enrollment of Gould School District? A. 
Enrollment or enumeration?

The Court: I think he wants to know how many 
are in the school.

Mr. Wralker: That’s right, Your Honor.
The Court: Approximately. I know that varies 

a little bit.

A. That varies. I would say eight hundred and fifty.
Q. How many of these are Negro? A. A little over 

five hundred—about five hundred and fifty.
Q. About how many of the five hundred and fifty are 

in the elementary school—in the Negro Elementary School? 
A. I would say three hundred. I don’t have the figures 
with me.

Q. Just an estimate will be fine, sir. And about how 
many of the remaining Negro pupils are in the Negro 
High School? A. I don’t have those figures at all, between 
two Hundred and two fifty.

— 8—

Q. Thanks. How many Negro pupils attend the predom­
inantly white schools in Gould? A. Approximately sev­
enty.

Q. Is that included in the total of five hundred and fifty? 
A. Yes.

The Court: How many was that—seventy?
Mr. Walker: Seventy.



30

A. (Continuing) Wait just a minute. We have a little 
over five hundred in the Field School and approximately 
seventy negroes in the G-ould Schools which would make a 
total of nearly six hundred.

Q. About six hundred out of eight hundred and fifty?

The Court: It really come out to 570 on the fig­
ures he has given you.

Q. All right, then. A. That’s close to it.
Q. Now how many pupils who are included in that 850 

total reside in the Wells Bayou School District?

The Court: Now that is another school district 
separate from the Gould School District.

— 9 —

Mr. Walker: That is right, Your Honor.
The Court: What’s the name of it?
Mr. Walker: Wells Bayou.

A. I believe our latest figures show about fifty-five or 
sixty percent, sir.

Q. How many of those are Negro? A. We have fifty- 
four from Wells Bayou District attending the Fields 
School, we have six attending the Gould School which 
would make a total of sixty.

Q. All right.

The Court: You mean sixty of sixty-five are 
Negroes?

Mr. Walker: Sixty of sixty-five or so are Negro. 
Is that right, sir?

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

A. That’s right.



31

Q. Now, is it true Mr. Sage that up until September 
of 1965 the Gould School District operated separate schools 
for Negro and for white pupils? A. That’s correct.

Q. Is it true that up until that time all negro puplis 
were required by the District to attend either the Field 
High School or the Field Elementary School? A. That’s 
right.

— 10—

Q. Is it true that up until that time that the Staff of 
the Fields Schools—both schools—was all Negro? A. 
Eight.

Q. As of September 1965 what was the rating or the 
accreditation of the Fields High School? A. The Fields 
High School did not have a rating, in other words, it was 
unaccredited. The Fields Elementary School was Class 
“C” .

The Court: Fields Elementary School, Class C?
The Witness: That’s right.

Q. Now, would you describe to the court the physical 
condition of the Fields High School, the main building, 
first of all of the Fields High School? A. The main 
building of Fields High School is a frame building con­
sisting of class-rooms, principal’s office and adjoining it 
is the Home Economics Department.

Q. The Home Economics Department, and what else? 
A. The Home Economics and class-rooms, itself.

Q. Is there another building in that area, Mr. Sage? 
A. Yes.

Q. What is that building? A. That building, up until 
this year, had been used for some elementary grades, the

— 11-

fifth and sixth grades, but during the summer we built

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



32

two additional class rooms at Fields Elementary School, 
so that those grades could be transferred.

Q. All right. Now, I ’m saying that on the same spot 
of land where the Fields High School is located, in addi­
tion to the Home Economics Building and the main build­
ing, is there another structure? A. This structure that 
had been used for the fifth and sixth grades.

Q. What is that being used for now? A. That is not 
being used. ;

Q. Isn’t there a bath, isn’t there a separate bath-house 
or bath-room? A. Yes, I didn’t think about those. The 
rest-room facilities are in separate buildings.

Q. All right. Would you tell the court, first of all who 
uses the gymnasium of the Fields High School? A. Well 
I presume that all high school students use it. All students, 
elementary students used it too.

Q. How far is the gymnasium for the Negroes in Gould, 
away from the high school facilities? A. I would say 
about four blocks.

Q. About four blocks away, so then that, it is on the 
premises of the elementary school? A. That’s right.

— 12—

Q. What grade pupils attend Fields High School? A. 
Seventh through twelfth.

Q. At this point I would like for you to state the salary 
of the principal of the Fields High School? A. The 
salary of the principal of Fields High School is $5100.

Q. What are his responsibilities? A. He is responsible 
for maintaining discipline, overseeing the work of the 
teachers, he just runs that Fields Elementary and Fields 
High School.

Q. What is his educational qualifications? A. He has a

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



33

Bachelor’s Degree—I don’t recall what school it is from 
and some work towards his Master’s Degree.

Q. I see. In your opinion, is he academically qualified 
to be a high-school principal? A. He is academically quali­
fied for a Class “ C” or a Class “B” rating. A Class “A” 
rating requires a Master’s Degree.

Q. Would he be qualified to be principal of the Gould 
High School? A. No.

Q. What are the qualifications of the Negro School 
teachers generally, in Gould? A. Every teacher has a 
Bachelor’s Degree and at least two teachers have Master’s 
Degrees out of seven, the others have Bachelor’s Degrees.

—13—
Q. Are these generally as well prepared or as well quali­

fied as the white school teachers? A. Technically on paper 
they are. Whether they are as well qualified actually to 
teach classes, I wouldn’t be prepared to say. I did not 
observe them teaching.

Q. You have not observed them teaching? A. Maybe 
in a few instances, yes, but not every teacher.

Q. All right. Would you say that they are qualified 
to teach in a predominantly white school of Gould? A. As 
far as I know.

Q, Do you have any plans to have any of them teach in 
the predominantly white school at Gould? A. We haven’t 
made any plans to that effect. In fact, we haven’t given 
much thought to the faculty integration because we wanted 
to get the matter of pupil integration settled before we 
started that.

Q. Are the Negro teachers paid according to a different 
salary scale than the white teachers? A. Some difference.

Q. Pardon? A. Yes.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



34

Q. What is the average salary of the Negro teachers 
in the School District?

—14—
The Court: Now, let’s see, are we talking from 

the twelfth grade down to the first—I mean the 
average?

Mr. Walker: I think the figures will show, which 
I have, will show that all teachers are paid just 
about the same—elementary and high schools—were 
paid just about the same. Go ahead.

A. The class-room teachers at Fields School I believe the 
salary this year was $3,870.00 without any extra duties.

Q. $3,870. And what did you pay the white teachers? 
A. The base salary for white teachers was $4,050.

Q. $4,050.

The Court: We talked about “averages” a moment 
ago.

Mr. Walker: That’s the base, Your Honor.
The Court: Are they comparable?
Mr. Walker: No, they’re not, Your Honor. We 

will get to that.

Q. (resuming) I show you here data concerning the Gould 
School district and show you the salary schedules you 
have for both schools for this year, and ask you to identify 
it. A. (Witness examines the data) I believe that’s cor­
rect.

■— 1 5 —

Q. Now—

The Court: That base salary of “white” with 
Bachelor’s Degree was what?

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



35

The Witness: $4,050.00.
The Court: All right.

Q. (Resuming) Now, I ask you is it not true that the 
range of Negro teacher’s salaries is from $3,870.00 to 
$4,500.00? A. That’s right.

Q. And for white teachers the range is from $4,050.00 
to $5,580.00? A. That’s right.

The Court: Are we talking about class-room
teachers?

Mr. Walker: Yes, sir.

Q. (Resuming) Are you aware— A. May I ask if that 
range for white teachers includes extra duties that they 
have, such as a Principal of a school being a Coach?

The Court: Does it include a Principal?
—16—

The Witness: We have a man who serves as 
Principal, who acts as Principal, and is paid a 
principal fee. It does not carry the title of “Princi­
pal” as far as the State Department of Education 
is concerned because of the fact that he has not a 
Master’s Degree, so we didn’t list him as the head 
teacher.

The Court: Do you have a Coach?
The Witness: We have two Coaches.
Mr. Walker: Well, let’s not—
The Court: Let met get this down to strictly 

“comparable”—the $4500.00 top of the “colored” 
was classroom teachers?

Mr. Walker: The $4500.00 top was a person who 
was both a classroom teacher and a coach.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



36

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct 

The Court: I see. All right.
Mr. Walker: (Continuing) The top for a class­

room teacher with a Master’s Degree is $4400.00. 
That’s a person who has a BS degree and is teaching 
Home Economics. The top salary for a non-admin- 
istrative person in the white schools is $5400.00, that

- 1 7 -
person being a Mr. Billy Ray McGehee, who is the 
Agriculture teacher.

A. That’s right.
Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming examination) Are you aware 

Mr. Sage, of a lawsuit that was brought against the Dis­
trict in 1949, seeking to have the School District equalize 
Teachers’ salaries'? A. I am not aware of it—

Q. Are you aware that the law has long required that 
salaries for both Negro and white teachers be equal? 
A. No, I am not.

Q. How do you justify paying white teachers more than 
you pay the Negro teachers? A. It’s simply getting back 
to that old theory of “ supply and demand” . We could not 
get white teachers for the salary that we are paying the 
Negro teachers—no applications. For the Negro teachers, 
in the Field School, every year I am swamped with ap­
plications. I would get twice as many teachers at that 
salary if I need them.

Q. I see. But you could not get that number of white 
teachers? A. I could not.

Q. All right. Do you have any other basis for justifying 
it? A. That’s the only basis.



37

Q. But you have admitted that you do have two sets of
- 1 8 -

salary schedules for Negroes and white— A. I admitted 
that we pay white teachers some more for the same duties, 
but realize this, that difference is not nearly so much as it 
has been in the past. You will notice there’s a difference 
of, I believe it’s $180.00 as base salary there—$3870.00 
and $4,050.00—which we are paying some of our classroom 
teachers, $180.00. When I came to Gould the difference 
was about $600.00. This year—well, last year, ’64-’65, that 
difference had been cut to approximately $500.00, and this 
year with our increased money from the State Department, 
under the foundation plan, which was supposed to provide 
an increase of an average of $500.00 per teacher through­
out the State. The Negro teachers received increases 
amounting to over $500.00 in each case. The white teachers’ 
increase was $270.00, and next year when we will be in 
the second year of our increased funds from the State 
Department, the Negro teachers will be raised more like 
they were this year, so that, in 1966 the salary scale will 
be equal. We felt it was too much to try to overcome in 
one year and we are doing it in two steps.

Q. How do you justify paying a person who has been 
teaching whose got a Bachelor’s Degree, who has been 
teaching in the Negro schools for thirty-five years, a 
salary of $3870.00, which is the minimum, while at the

—1 9 -
same time you pay a white teacher coming into the Sys­
tem for the first time, with no teaching experience, 
$4,050.00! A. As I said before, at that salary of $3870.00, 
it’s the question of taking my pick of applications from 
Negro teachers for that school.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



38

Q. All right. How can you justify— A. (Continuing) 
At that salary at the white school, I couldn’t get one.

Q. All right. Now, what is the number of pupils that 
the head teacher at the white school has to supervise? 
A. He supervises the whole school, which is about 365, I 
would say.

Q. All right. And what is the number of pupils that 
the Negro principal has to supervise? A. He has ap­
proximately five hundred, maybe a few more, but there 
is this difference—

Q. Let me ask this question—

The Court: Let him finish.

A. Let me tell you this difference, the head teacher acting 
as Principal at the white school teaches four solid aca­
demic classes—Algebra I, Algebra II, Advanced Math, 
Plane Geometry, in addition to their supervisory duties. 
The Principal at the Fields School, has no teaching duties.

— 20—

Q. How do you justify, however, paying that white 
teacher—

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

The Court: What white teacher?
Mr. Walker: The Principal, the head teacher.

Q. (Continuing) —$5,580.00, and the Negro person who 
is Principal of the Field High School only $5,100.00? A. 
Well, for two reasons. One is, as I just said, he has 
many more duties. He teaches in four academic classes 
in addition to his supervisory duties, and the other is the 
old theory of supply and demand.



T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

Q. Aren’t Principals generally the highest paid persons 
in the School System? A. That’s right.

Q. But in this case the one Negro Principal that you 
have in the School System receives less than at least one 
teacher administrator?

The Court: I didn’t follow you.
Mr. Walker: In this case, the one Principal in the 

School System, since there’s only one full-time Prin­
cipal in the School System, receives less money than 
at least one—and for the record let it he shown 
that there are at least two people in the white 
school who make more than the Negro Principal.

— 21—

The Court: You say there is only one Principal?
Mr. Walker: That’s right. This person who

serves as a Principal really isn’t a Principal ac­
cording to Mr. Sage. He is principally a teacher 
who has some administrative responsibilities.

The Court: I didn’t think he said he really wasn’t 
a Principal. Did you say that?

The Witness: No, I said— The one at the Gould 
School.

Mr. Walker: Yes.
The Witness: He has all the Principal’s duties. 

The only thing we can not refer to him as a Princi­
pal on the Report to the State Department of Edu­
cation. We can not call him a High School Principal 
because of the Degree.

The Court: Because he hasn’t had that Master’s 
Degree.

The Witness: Because he hasn’t that Master’s 
Degree.



40

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

— 22—

Mr. Light: Mr. Walker, for the record, is reading 
from—

The Court: Well, he is just using that to read 
his notes, Mr. Light. There’s nothing wrong with 
that. Is that a copy of some official document! If 
either one of you want to introduce it, you can, 
but I won’t require Mr. Walker to.

Mr. Light: Calling the Court’s attention to the 
fact that Mr. Walker stated for the record that 
two white teachers are paid more than—

The Court: Well, that statement, as such, will be 
stricken from the record.

Mr. Walker : All right.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Mr. Sage, I ask you whether 
or not Billy Ray McGehee and Charles D. Cheatam and 
Harry M. Nash are paid salaries which exceed that of 
Horace I. Dalton, the Negro High School Principal? A. 
That’s correct.

Q. Is there a hot lunch program at the Field School? 
A. Not at the present.

Q. Have you ever had lunch there? A. Not as far as I 
know.

Q. Now is there a hot lunch program at the predomi-
— 23—

nantly Gould white High School? A. Yes.
Q. The elementary school pupils can take advantage of 

that too? A. Yes.
Q. Mr. Sage, is there an Agriculture Building at the 

white school? A. There is.
Q. Is there such a building at the Negro School? A. 

Not at the present.



41

Q. Is there—

The Court: A building?
Mr. Walker: A building.
The Court: A  Department.
The Witness: We don’t have an Agriculture De­

partment at the Negro School.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Now, in the Negro School, 
is there an auditorium? A. There is a combination audi­
torium and gymnasium.

Q. I’m saying, at the Negro High School, is there an 
auditorium? A. Yes, there is a place in the central part 
of the building that can be used for small assemblies.

—24—
Q. About how many people would that hold? A. I don’t 

know. Perhaps the Principal of the school could tell you 
more about that.

Q. Would two hundred seem like a high figure? A. I 
would think so.

Q. Now, is there an auditorium at the white high school? 
A. There is a combination lunch-room and auditorium.

Q. Is there a library at the Negro high school? A. 
There is a space for a library.

Q. Is there a library at the Negro high school? A. I 
would say there is a library, yes.

Q. I show you a picture here Mr. Sage, that was taken 
yesterday, and ask you to identify this picture.

The Court: Are we talking about “Field” ?
Mr. Walker : Yes, Your Honor.

Q. Do you recognize that, Mr. Sage? A. Yes.
Q. Isn’t that a picture which shows the major part of

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



42

the library at the Field High School! A. I don’t know 
if it shows the major part of it because I don’t know 
what books are out, whether—•

— 25—

Mr. Walker: I would like to have this introduced 
as Plaintiffs’ Exhibit I. It has been marked and I 
would like to refer to it later.

The Court: It may be received.
(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibit I, previously 

marked for identification, is received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Now, is there a library at 
the predominantly white high school! A. Yes, there is.

Q. Do you have a person who superintends that library! 
A. Yes.

Q. Do you have a person who superintends the library 
at the Negro high school! A. One of the teachers acts 
as librarian.

Q. One of the teachers—which one! A. I believe it’s 
the Social Studies Teacher.

Q. Is she paid a special salary for that! A. No.
Q. Is the white teacher paid a special salary for super­

intending the library? A. The teacher at Gould High 
School has two periods set aside for the library.

Q. I see. Did you know the approximate number of 
books that are in the library of the Field High School?

— 26—

A. No, I do not.
Q. Would you know the approximate number of books 

in the white high school? A. I do not know. I would 
presume somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand 
books.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



43

Q. I see. Is there a study-hall in the Negro high school? 
A. There is a room, we refer to it as an assembly room 
that I believe is used as a study-hall.—

Q. You believe it is. Is there a study-hall at the white 
high school? A. (Continuing) I know they have study- 
hall periods and I assume they have it there.

Q. You don’t know though whether they do. A. No.
Q. How long have you been Superintendent of the 

School District? A. Five years—this is the fifth year.
Q. Now, is there a study-hall at the white high school? 

A. There is a study-hall in another building from the high 
school building.

Q. Is there a Science Labtoratory at the Negro school? 
A. They have Science classrooms—a combination of class­
room and laboratory.

Q. Would you tell the Court what kind of facilities you 
have for a Science laboratory there? A. At which school?

— 27—

Q. At the Field School? A. I do not know what facili­
ties they have.

Q. Would you tell the Court what facilities you have at 
the white high school for a Science laboratory? A. We 
have a building which was purchased several years ago 
along with a residence. This building had been used by 
a man in the barbecue business, a block building, he used 
that for packaging and preparing of his barbecue meat, 
and that building is used as a Science laboratory and class­
room.

Q. Do you have adequate facilities there for a Science 
laboratory? A. No.

Q. But are the facilities there more adequate than at 
the Negro school? A. I would say maybe a little better, 
but they can’t be much better. The facilities in the Gould

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



44

high school Science Department is a combination of a 
teacher’s desk and a students’ desks and some gas outlets 
for the furnace.

Q. Do you know whether there is a sealed gas outlet 
for a furnace for whatever you call it—science, or what 
have you—at the Science laboratory at the Field high 
school? A. I presume they do.

—28—
Q. Do you know whether there are any test tubes in the 

laboratory? A. I do not know what equipment they have.
Q. Have you earmarked any money for use for a labora­

tory in the Negro school? A. We have earmarked, as 
such, for that in either school.

Q. So it’s up to the discretion of the Principal to deter­
mine where the money is used? A. That’s right.

Q. Are pupils at the Gould high school required to pay 
a laboratory fee? A. They are not.

Q. Are Negro pupils at Field high school required to 
pay a laboratory fee? A. I do not know. Their Principal 
could probably answer that question.

Q. Mr. Sage, do you know how much per pupil you 
spend on each Negro pupil who attends Field high school? 
A. No.

Q. Isn’t that amount less than the “per pupil” expendi­
ture on pupils in the Gould high school? A. I expect it 
would be.

Q. Do Gould high school pupils have to pay an enroll­
ment fee? A. They do not pay an enrollment fee as such 
—the pupils at enrollment.

-—29—
Q. Does it come at high school then? A. No.
Q. All right. Do the Field High school pupils have to

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



/ 45

pay an enrollment fee! A. I think maybe they have in 
the past. They were supposed to discontinue it.

Q. You don’t know whether it was discontinued this 
year or not, do you? A. No.

Q. You assume that it was. Are there any compulsory—•

The Court: Why would there be an enrollment 
fee?

The Witness: I think they use that term to cover 
“library” , “laboratory” and “work book” fees.

The Court: But you had none at the white high 
school?

The Witness: No, sir.
The Court: Do those people coming in from that 

other School District pay a tuition fee?
The Witness: The school District pays it for 

them.
— 30—

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Are there any compulsory 
fund drives in the Gould high school? By that I mean are 
there any compulsory fund drives that require the pupil 
to stay out of school in order to raise money? A. No.

Q. (Continuing) To go to work on a special project like 
picking cotton? A. They have drives in which classes 
work after school to raise money.

Q. Do you know whether Negro pupils are required to 
miss days from school in order to pick cotton to raise 
money for fees—

The Court: Raise money for what?
Mr. Walker: For fees, and for other fund-raising 

projects?

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



46

A. I have been told they have in the past and they were 
instructed to discontinue that.

Q. Do you know whether that practice has been dis­
continued? A. (None).

The Court: Now you say they were required to 
miss school. You don’t mean they were required 
by the school authorities to miss school, do you?

—31—
Mr. Walker: No, I mean, Your Honor, that the 

School District, or its employees have required 
pupils to leave school to pick cotton to earn money 
for the School District.

The Court: You mean to pay these fees?
Mr. Walker: For special fund drives.
The Court: Special fund drives?
The Witness: I don’t know what you are talking 

about.

Q. You don’t know anything about that. You don’t know 
whether pupils have been required recently to miss school 
in order to pick cotton to raise money for the Field School? 
A. I have been told that, it was rumored—it came in a 
round-about-way, that they had been, and they were in­
structed if that has been the practice to discontinue it.

Q. When did you instruct the Principal to do that? A. 
At the beginning of the school year.

Q. You never instructed him to discontinue that last 
year or either of the preceding— A. I didn’t know they 
were doing that last year.

Q. You did not know— A. When the information come 
to me that’s when I gave instructions to discontinue it.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



47

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

—32—
Q. Isn’t it true that you have had frequent meetings 

with a Negro PTA there which brought these kind of 
problems to your attention?

The Court: Say that again?

Q. Isn’t it true that you have had meetings with mem­
bers of a Negro PTA, the members of which have brought 
these kind of problems to your attention in the past? 
A. We have had representatives of that PTA come to me 
maybe once a year, but that particular problem you men­
tion, that was mentioned by them.

Q. All right. Now, Mr. Sage, let me go back to the 
physical facilities again. Isn’t it true that every pupil 
who attends Gould high school has an individual desk and 
chair? A. I believe they do.

The Court: That’s “high school” we’re talking 
about.

Mr. Walker: High school.

Q. (Resuming) I show you here a picture of a classroom 
at the Field High School and ask you to identify that. 
A. That seems to be a picture of a classroom at Fields.

—33—
Q. Now, I— A. Let me amend my statement about each 

pupil at Gould high school having individual desks. They 
have an individual desk or chair. There are several class­
rooms in which they have a simliar arrangement in this 
picture here, that is a folding table and folding chair, 
three on each side sit at the table.

Q. Isn’t it true that this is the pattern of all the seats



48

in the high school, at the Field High School? A. They 
have some classrooms with individual desks.

Q. But not very many. A. I don’t know how the num­
bers would compare.

Mr. Walker: I would like to have this marked 
Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 2, and introduced into the record. 

The Court: It will be received.
(Whereupon, Plaintiffs5 Exhibit 2, previously 

marked for identification, is received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Mr. Sage, how was the Gould High School heated? 
A. Each classroom has a heater controlled thermostatically. 

Q. Would you describe that as central heating? A. No. 
Q. All right. Would you describe the kind of heating 

that you have at the Negro high school? A. The same 
as that at the Gould high school. Individual heaters in 
each room.

—34—
Q. Now, I ask you, isn’t it true that you have gas stoves 

at the Negro Field high school, which are unvented?

The Court: Wait a minute. Gas stoves at the 
Field high school—

Mr. Walker: Which are unvented.
The Court: Now, what is “unvented” ?
Mr. Walker: That means there are no vents there 

to keep the gas fumes from going out into the class­
room.

The Court: You mean you have gas stoves at 
Fields that do not have vented flues? Is that what 
you asked?

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



49

Mr. Walker: That’s right.
The Court: All right.

A. I could not answer that.
Q. You don’t know? A. I know the rooms have gas 

heat. Whether they are vented or not, I don’t know.
Q. You would say that the heating at the white school is 

superior to the heating at the Negro school!
—35—

The Court: He hasn’t said that.

A. No, I haven’t said that at all.
Q. Would you say that! A. No, I would not.
Q. All right. I show you here a picture of a vent in one 

of the white schools, and ask if you can identify that? A. 
Yes.

Q. And that can be controlled by a thermostat on the 
wall, is that right? A. That’s right.

Q. All right. How do the stoves in the Negro school dif­
fer from this? A. I am not familiar enough with the 
stoves in there to say how they differ.

Q. All right. You don’t know. A. No. I know each in­
dividual room has its own heater.

Q. It’s own gas stove—an upright stove? A. I don’t 
know whether it’s upright. I know that the main entrance 
there is suspended to the wall—

Mr. Walker: I would like to have this marked as 
Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 3 and introduced into the record. 

Mr. Light: May I see it?

(Mr. Light examines the marked Exhibit 3)

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

—36—



50

The Court: It will be received.
(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 3, previ­

ously marked for identification, is received in 
evidence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Now, I show you this picture of a stove in the Negro 
school and ask you do you recognize it? A. I don’t rec­
ognize it, no.

Q. Does this setting in the background look familiar to 
you as being part of the Field school? A. No, I couldn’t 
identify that as being in the Field school, or a residence, 
I don’t know that.

Q. Now, do you have rest-room facilities within each 
building at the Gould high school and elementary school? 
A. That’s right.

Q. Now, are those facilities in good repair and are they 
adequate? A. Yes, they are kept in good repair.

Q. I show you here a picture of a certain facility in the 
Gould high school and ask you to identify that. A. That 
seems to be from Gould high school.

The Court: Is that No. 4?
Mr. Walker: No. 4, and I have it marked as Plain­

tiffs’ No. 4, Your Honor. This is a picture of the
—3 7 -

bath-room facilities at the Gould High. (Mr. Light 
examines the exhibit)

The Court: Did you mean to offer it?
Mr. Walker: Yes, I plan to have it offered.
The Court: It may be received.

(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 4, previ­
ously marked for identification, is received in 
evidence and made a part of this record.)

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



51

Q. Now, would you state to the court again where the 
bath-room for Negroes at the high school is located? A. 
It’s in a separate building near the high school building.

Q. All right. Would you say that the facilities of the 
bath-room for Negroes are equal to the facilities of the 
bath-room for white pupils? A. I would say this, that 
they have the same fixtures that we have in ours.

Q. That “we have in ours” , what do you mean by that? 
A. That are in the Gould high school.

Q. All right. I show you two pictures here and ask you 
if this isn’t a picture of the bath-room, one side of it, at 
the Field High school? A. That’s right.

Q. And I show you a second picture and ask you if this
—38—

isn’t a picture of the facility within the bath-room? A. 
That seems to be, yes.

Mr. Walker: I would like to have these marked 
Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 5 and Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 6, and 
introduce them into the record please.

The Court: Plaintiffs’ Exhibits 5 and 6 are re­
ceived.

(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibits 5 and 6, pre­
viously marked for identification, are received 
in evidence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Now, this means that in inclement weather Negro 
pupils who have a need to use the bath-room, are required 
to come outside and expose themselves to some sickness 
or possible illness to get to the bath-room, doesn’t it? A. 
I don’t think they would be exposed enough to make it a 
hazard to their health to get the distance of a few feet 
going to the building.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



52

Q. But, nevertheless, they do have to come out of the 
building in order to get into— A. Yes, they do have to 
leave the building.

Q. Right. But pupils in the Gould high school and ele­
mentary school don’t have to leave the building for any­
thing, do they? A. They do not have to leave the building.

—-39—
The Court: What was Exhibit 3!
Mr. Walker: That shows the central heating.
The Court: Oh, yes.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Now you have a number of 
courses at the Gould high school, which are not offered 
at the Field high school, isn’t that true? A. We have a 
number—Number One I think it is.

Q. What do you mean by that! A. We have vocational 
agriculture that is offered in the Gould high school, that 
is not offered at Field.

Q. Is that the only course! A. That’s, as far as I know, 
that’s the only one.

Q. Don’t you offer Journalism at the Gould high school ? 
A. We put Journalism in this year, but not last year.

Q. But you don’t offer it at the Field school, do you? 
A. No.

Q. Do you offer Literature at the Gould school?

The Court: What do you mean? Are you talking 
about the English course? English courses in Litera­
ture?

Mr. Walker: Yes.
—40—

A. Literature is offered as a part of the English course.
Q. Don’t you have a special course in Literature? A. 

We do not.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



53

Q. Do you have Chemistry at the Gould school? A. Yes. 
Q. Do you have Chemistry at the Field School? A. We 

do.
Q. Do you have advanced Chemistry at the Gould school ? 

A. We do not, there is one year of chemistry.
Q. One full year? A. Yes.
Q. Do you have that at the Negro school! A. At the 

Negro school we have chemistry and biology offered each 
year. At the Gould school we alternate chemistry and 
biology each year.

Q. All right. Now, Mr. Sage, do you have a copy of the 
District’s Desegregation Plan with you?

Mr. Light: I can supply one.
Mr. Walker: Generally, for the Court’s informa­

tion, would you relate what that Plan is?

A. Generally that Plan involves a Freedom of Choice for 
all pupils in all twelve grades, with the one exception that 
the U.S. Office of Education amended our Plan so as to

—41—
not require the full Freedom of Choice in Grades 5, 10, 
and 11.

Q. You say the Office of Education amended your Plan? 
A. They suggested that amendment.

Q. The office of Education suggested that you not de- 
segrate Grades 5, 10, and 11 this year?

The Court: I think I know what he means. After 
he submitted a Plan for all twelve grades, he sub­
mitted an amendment to the Plan which, they ap­
proved.

The Witness: That’s right, but the initiative of 
the bill leaving out the three grades came from the 
U.S. Office of Education.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—-Direct



54

The Court: I didn’t understand that.
The Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walker: In other words they called you. Do 

you have anything to show that in the record?
The Witness: I don’t know whether—do we have 

that, Mr. Light? I know it’s in the letter?
Mr. Light: The entire assembly delaying your 

Plan was in some papers I gave you, including the
- 4 2 -

letter from the Office of Education.
The Witness: May I see a copy of that then, Mr. 

Light ?
Mr. Light: Sure.

(Counsel and the witness examine the papers in 
question.)

The Court: Did you first submit the Plan for 
Grades 1 to 12?

The Witness: That’s right.
Mr. Light: By agreement with Mr. Walker, Your 

Honor, I offer the group of papers, now in Mr. 
Sage’s custody, as Joint Exhibit No. 1 and identify 
it as the Plan of Desegregation of the Gould School 
District—

The Court: Let’s don’t have two Number One’s, 
that just complicates the thing. Just make it Num­
ber—Call it Plaintiffs’ No. 7.

Mr. Walker: Plaintiffs’ No. 7.
The Court: That’s right. Unless you have some 

strong feeling otherwise.
—43—

Mr. Light: None whatever. I just merely want 
to identify it as the Desegregation Plan, accom­

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



55

panied by all of the amendments, letters and so 
forth.

The Court: All right. I think it ought to be in 
the record.

(Whereupon Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 7, consti­
tuting a group of documents, amendments, 
letters, etc., previously marked for identifi­
cation, is received in evidence and made |a 
part of this record.)

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) I would like for you to look 
at that letter, Mr. Sage, that the Office of Education wrote 
to you, with regard to Grades 5, 10 and 11, and I ask 
you isn’t it true that the Office did not require you to 
exempt Grades 5, 10 and 11 from your desegregation plan 
for this year? A. They gave us the privilege of exclud­
ing those three grades from the general Freedom of Choice.

Q. They gave you the privilege, and they did not re­
quire that you do that? A. The wording of it, “in grades 
5, 10 and 11 in 1965, as many Negro pupils as possible 
who chose a previously white school will be accepted”—

Q. As many as possible? A. (Continuing) And in 1966 
that all grades would be accepted without any exception.

Mr. Walker: I think that the letter will speak for 
itself, Your Honor.

Q. (Resuming) Now, you do not include in your deseg­
regation plan for this year grades 5, 10 and 11. Is that 
right? A. They are included. We have some Negro pupils 
in each of those grades.

Q. On what basis did you decide to let some Negro pupils 
into those grades and exclude others generally? A. We

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—-Direct



56

used “proximity to Negro schools” . Those who lived near­
est to the Negro schools. Some were living across the 
street or within a block or two blocks of the Negro school.

Q. Isn’t it true—

The Court: In proximity to what school?
The Witness: The Field school.
The Court: Now wait a minute. Don’t you mean 

the white school?
Mr. Walker: You mean to the—I’m sorry.
The Court: Predominantly white school?
Mr. Walker : I don’t know what he means.

—45—
The Court: What you said was that the ones 

that lived close to the Field school, you let them 
go to the other school.

The Witness: The ones that lived closest to the 
Fields School were the ones that we let go to that 
school.

The Court: I misunderstood you.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Now, isn’t it true that, of 
all the Negro pupils who are enrolled in Grades 5, 10 and 
11, that those pupils live outside of the Gould School 
District?

The Court: Mr. Walker, I ’m sorry. Say that 
again?

Q. Isn’t it true that all the Negro pupils who were ad­
mitted to grades 5, 10 and 11 live outside of the Gould 
School District? A. I do not know if they all live out­
side of the Gould School District—

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



57

Q. Let me put it this way, don’t they all live in Weils 
Bayou! A. From Wells Bayou? I ’m not prepared to say 
that they all live outside of the District.

Q. Didn’t you put a notice, two days before school 
started, maybe three, on September—I forget the exact 
date, but the Friday or Saturday preceding the date school 
started, which stated that grades 5, 10 and 11 would be

—46—
closed to all Negro pupils this year? A. No, we did not.

Q. What did that notice say, Mr. Sage? A. There was 
a letter sent to the parents of those pupils what we were 
not accepting them in the Gould high school. Those Negro 
pupils whom we were accepting in those three grades we 
did not send a letter to.

Q. Did you not have printed in the newspaper that 
grades 5, 10 and 11 would be closed this year? A. We 
did not.

Q. Do you have a copy of the letter that you sent to 
the Negro parents? A. I do not have one with me, but 
that letter was sent only to the parents of those whom 
we were not accepting.

Q. I would like to know now, how again did you deter­
mine which ones you would accept and which ones you 
wouldn’t?

The Court: Who made the choice, Mr. Sage?
The Witness: The School Board and I together.
The Court: How many of them are accepted in 

those three grades?
The Witness: I don’t know whether I have to 

figure or whether Mr. Light has them. We accepted
•—47-—

one in the fifth grade, nine in the tenth grade and 
two in the eleventh grade.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs-—Direct



58

The Court: All right, Mr. Walker.

Q. I ask you again, aren’t all those pupils from Wells 
Bayou? A. I do not know that they are all from Wells 
Bayou.

Q. You don’t know where they were from. A. The fact 
that they lived in Wells Bayou was not one of the factors 
on which they were accepted.

The Court: What were the factors, Mr. Sage?

A. We looked at it this way—say in the fifth grade, for 
example, if we had six more that applied than we could 
have room for, we took the six that lived nearest to Field 
school to send back to that school. That’s the basis we 
worked on.

Q. But now pupils who live in Wells Bayou live closer 
to the Field School—

The Court: No, of course they don’t. They come 
in on a bus.

Mr. Walker: The thing is, they might have to 
pass Field School in order to get to it.

A. (Resuming) All right now, you said once you got up 
to this overcrowding level, you then started turning Negro

—4 8 -
pupils away? A. In those three grades.

Q. In those grades.

The Court: Why were those three grades more 
crowded than the others—or were they?

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



59

The Witness: They were. That was of course 
during the summer when the projected enrollments, 
taking the—

The Court: Do you have a bulge in those three 
grades?

The Witness: A what?
The Court: Do you have a pupil bulge in those 

three grades?
The Witness: In those three grades the projected 

enrollment showed more than in any of the other 
grades, adding the ones that were in the Gould 
School last year plus the ones who signed up on 
the Freedom of Choice plan to come to that school.

Q. Isn’t it true, Mr. Sage, that Grade 11 at the Negro 
Field high school is overcrowded? A. I don’t know what 
it is.

Q. Isn’t it true that grade ten at the Negro High School
—49—

is overcrowded? A. It is not overcrowded in the sense 
with the number of teachers they have.

Q. No, no, the facilities that they have and of course 
the number of teachers they have. A. The tenth grade 
in the Field high school has a larger number than should 
be assigned to one class, but they haven’t enough teachers 
available with proper distribution that could be made in 
two sections.

Q. But nonetheless it is overcrowded, isn’t it? Isn’t it 
true that the Negro school is grossly overcrowded right 
now. A. I wouldn’t say that it’s grossly overcrowded.

Q. Isn’t it true that it’s overcrowded? A. It’s over­
crowded to a small degree.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiff s—Direct



60

Q. All right. Now you have 350 pupils approximately 
in the Gould school, that is in the predominantly white 
schools? A. About 365, I believe.

Q. And you have about 560—did you say—in the pre­
dominantly Negro Field School? A. I would have to check, 
if you would allow me to ask the Principal of the Field 
School.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

The Court: Yes, go ahead and ask him. Off the 
record, let him ask him. That’s off the record.

—50—
(Mr. Walker conferred with the Principal of the 

Field school off-the-record).
The Court: (On the record) Let’s give those fig­

ures that you just got Mr. Sage.
The Witness: I would say about 365 at the white 

school—that’s for all twelve grades.
The Court: All right. 365 white and how many 

Negro?
The Witness: I believe he said 478.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) But, now, isn’t it true that 
for those 365 pupils in the Gould school, you have almost 
as many teachers as you do for the 478 pupils in the 
Negro high school? A. We have three more Negro teach­
ers at that school than we have at the white school.

Q. So that the Negro teachers have a far higher pupil- 
teacher ratio?

The Court: It doesn’t appear so.
Mr. Walker: All right. Let’s check it.
The Court: It’s about a hundred difference.

—51—
Mr. Walker: All right, Your Honor.



61

Q. You have fourteen white teachers, is that right? A. 
That figure “fourteen” includes the head teacher and the 
librarian who did not have a full schedule of classes,

Q. You have fourteen at the white school and seventeen 
at the Negro school, including the Principal, so you have 
sixteen teachers at the Negro school since he doesn’t teach 
anything you said? A. That’s right.

Q. May I ask your indulgence for a minute, Your Honor. 
(Mr. Walker referred to his papers) Quick figures show 
that you have approximately one teacher for every thirty 
pupils at the Field School, and approximately twenty-six 
for every teacher at the Gould School.

The Court: What figure are you using?
Mr. Walker : 365 and 478.
The Court: I know, but what are you dividing 

365 by?
Mr. Walker: 365 by 14.
The Court: By 14 classroom teachers?

—52—
Mr. Walker: Yes.
The Witness: Now all of those are not classroom 

teachers. That 14 includes the man who serves as 
Principal.

Mr. Walker: But he also teaches a full load—
The Witness: It would not be “full” .
Mr. Walker: Well, almost a full load.
The Witness: He teaches four classes.
Mr. Walker: How many more would a full teacher 

teach?
The Witness: In arriving at your figures at the 

Field school you did not include the Principal.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



62

Mr. Walker: But the Principal doesn’t teach any­
thing at all. That would come up with about 14 full 
teachers.

The Witness: If we did not give our Principal 
any classes to teach the figures would be about equal, 
hut we do not have enough teachers and had to give 
him classes to teach.

—53—
Q. (Resuming) All right, Mr. Sage. Aren’t the Gould 

public schools, white for the most part, less crowded than 
the Field school! A. They are less crowded in some in­
stances and more crowded in some grades—

Q. I am speaking generally, Mr. Sage. A. (Continuing) 
—some grades in the Field Elementary School. If you in­
clude the Elementary School too, some teachers in the 
Gould School have more pupils than the same grade has 
in the Field School.

Q. Generally, aren’t the Field schools more crowded 
than—

The Court: Now, does the word “Field” apply to 
the high school—

Mr. Walker: Both of them.
The Court: All right. Excuse me, Mr. Sage. Go 

ahead.

A. (Continuing) I would say that in some grades the Gould 
School is more crowded and in some grades the Field 
School is more crowded. In some of the grades they have 
fewer pupils to teach than in the Gould School.

Q. What do you, in the ease of overcrowding in a Negro 
school, do—do you assign those pupils to the white school 
if the grades which are overcrowded are not overcrowded

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



63

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

— 54—

at the white school? A. No, we do not assign them unless 
they had indicated a preference for that school on the 
registration sheet we gave out in the Spring.

Q. Mr. Sage, do you have very many pupils who failed 
to return their preference forms to you? A. Who failed 
to return them?

Q. Yes. A. I don’t know of any who failed to return 
them. I didn’t check on each individual pupil at the Field 
School that the pupil returned their sheets to the teachers.

Q. Did you send preference forms out to the white 
pupils ? A. Certainly.

Q. All right. Now, then, how many of those failed to 
return their preference forms? A. I don’t think any failed 
to return them.

Q. You don’t know though? A. In fact I know there 
didn’t anybody fail to return them.

Q. So, you got preference forms from every pupil in the 
School District, to your knowledge. Isn’t it true, Mr. Sage, 
that you and certain of the Board members have obtained 
an injunction against several civil rights groups in Gould 
enjoining them from making any protests about conditions 
in the School System there? A. I do not know the word­
ing of an injunction. The injunctions I assume you are

— 55—

referring to are injunctions against mass demonstrations 
or picketing in the vicinity of the Gould high school.

Q. In the vicinity of the predominantly white school? 
A. Yes.

Q. All right. Isn’t it also true that you have issued 
orders which forbid the Negro PTA from meeting in the 
high school—the Negro high school? A. That is right.



64

Q. What’s your reason for that, Mr. Sage? A. The 
reason for that is, as I understand, the PTA had evolved 
into largely a protest group against the School Board and 
the policies of the Board. The members of that organiza­
tion were the same who planned to demonstrate against 
the Gould high school and had sent chartered bus loads 
of people to Little Rock to demonstrate around the Fed­
eral Building, who were getting a chartered bus of sym­
pathizers to come to this hearing today and it does not 
seem right to us to furnish a meeting place for a group 
of people that is fighting' everything we are trying to do 
for them.

Q. This means that you have in effect held that the Field 
High School patrons cannot have a PTA organization! 
A. They can have a PTA but they can meet somewhere 
else.

Q. Do you know whether any of your employees, mean-
— 56—

ing the Principal of the Negro School, or anybody else 
employed by you, discouraged Negro pupils from exercis­
ing choices for the Gould high school? A. I don’t know 
of any such method.

Q. All right. I want to go back and ask you what are 
your specific plans for faculty desegregation?

The Court: Let’s take a recess for ten minutes.

(Whereupon, a recess was taken, after which the 
following proceedings were had in open court:)

The Court: Come around, Mr. Sage.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



65

W hebeupon, T. R aymond Sage, resumed the witness 
stand for  further examination, as follow s:

Direct Examination by Mr. Walker (Cont’d):

Q. Mr. Sage, will you state to the Court whether, in 
your opinion, Negro pupils are given equal treatment— 
Negro pupils who attend Field high school are being given 
equal treatment as the pupils who attend the Gould high 
school? A. Yes, I think they are.

Q. Do you have any plans for giving them better treat-
—57—

mentf A. In what respect?
Q. Any respect. A. We have plans for providing better 

facilities for them.
Q. Would you tell the Court about those plans? A. We 

are going to apply this year—the new Federal Aid to Sec­
ondary & Elementary Education, the terms of that Act— 
we are going to apply for funds for a lunch-room and 
for a shop and Teacher, and Industrial Arts, which is 
similar to our shop in the Vocational Agricultural Depart­
ment. I have talked with officials—spent the afternoon 
yesterday afternoon—talked with the State Department 
officials and they have indicated that those requests will 
be granted. So we intend to do that much immediately— 
lunch-room and Industrial Arts course would be put in 
before the end of this year. We intend to build a com­
pletely new school, to abandon the Field High school, 
during the year of 1967.

Q. During the year 1967? A. Yes.
Q. To be open for use in 1968? A. To be open in the 

Fall of 1967.
Q. To be open in the Fall of 1967? A. We would like 

to do it sooner, but there are two reasons that we can not.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



66

In orded to do that, of course, we will have to have a bond
- 5 8 -

issue. At the present, according to State law, our bor­
rowing’ power, which is fifteen percent of our assessed 
valuation, is not sufficient to build a new school. By Janu­
ary of 1967, that borrowing power will have increased by 
the amount that we have paid off on the indebtedness. In 
1966 and ’67, it will be increased to a point that we can 
build. Also we have a bond issue at the present which 
will he paid off by January 1, 1967. A  new bond issue 
can he made without increasing the millage rate at that 
time because this bond issue that will be paid off in Janu­
ary ’67, has nine mills—

The Court: What is your millage now?
The Witness: Forty-seven, which is well above 

the average.

A. (Continuing) When that issue is paid off in ’67, this 
nine mills can be transferred to the new bond issue with­
out increasing our millage. We plan to put that on the 
hallott—school election—in September 1966.

Q. Do you have any other plans? A. Other than build­
ing what I have mentioned—lunch-room and industrial arts 
department and a new high school building—other plans 
would include taking advantage of the new Federal Aid 
to Elementary and Secondary Education, as far as per­
sonal services to pupils is concerned.

—59—
The Court: What do you call that program?
The Witness: That’s Federal Aid to Elementary 

and Secondary Education.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



67

The Court: Federal Aid to Elementary and Sec­
ondary!

The Witness: That’s right.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Let me get this straight. 
What you plan to do, among’ other things, is to tear down 
the Negro high school! A. To tear it down, or if some­
one wants to buy it and wheel it off—

Q. To dispose of the Negro high school! A. Yes.
Q. And you plan to replace that high school! A. We 

plan to build a new high school.
Q. All right. Now, you plan to have the same pupils 

who now attend that high school to continue attending it! 
A. I don’t know whether they will be the same pupils or 
not. I assume some of the same pupils will be. Our plan 
of compliance under Freedom of Choice, some who are 
attending it now I am sure will indicate a desire to come 
to Gould.

—60—
Q. Do you plan to have that school integrated! A. We 

plan to follow our plan, which is to give each pupil his 
choice of attending.

Q. All right. Would you say that the school now is a 
Negro school! A. The school at the present!

Q. Yes. A. The Field School is all-Negro, yes.
Q. So, that, isn’t it probable that if you dispose of that 

property and replace it with a new facility, that it too 
will be all-Negro! A. It probably will for those who in­
dicate their choice to go to that school.

Q. Now, get back to your plans for faculty desegrega­
tion, what are they! A. We have not made any definite 
plans for faculty desegregation because we have had so 
many other things to contend with, problams to be settled,

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



68

that we have kept that in the background. We want to get 
the pupil integration question settled and running as 
smoothly as possible before we go into something else.

Q. Are your faculty meetings integrated? A. We have 
not had any up to this point, but we will have at least 
two this school year, one before the Christmas holidays.

—61—
Q. Do you have any “in-service” work shops? A. We 

do not have any in-service work shops in the school.
Q. Have you ever had any Principal’s meetings? A. 

We have not had any Principal’s meetings because we 
just have one at each school.

Q. So, that, you haven’t had any integrated faculty 
or staff contact? A. No, but we will have before the 
year is out.

Q. Isn’t it true that you have committed to the Office of 
Education, that beginning with this term your faculty 
meetings, Principal’s meetings, Teachers’ meeting and in- 
service work shops shall be held on a desegregated basis 
without regard to race? A. No, it did not say that they 
all would be. It said that we will have some, which we 
will have.

The Court: Of course, he doesn’t have many 
Principals, Mr. Walker.

Mr. Walker: But he does have a number of 
faculty members, Your Honor.

Q. (Mr. Walker, continuing) All right. What plan do 
you have for using Negro teachers in 1966? A. We do 
not have any definite plan for using Negro teachers or 
white teachers. We don’t know what vacancies we will 
have in 1966.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



69

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

Q. You don’t have any plans to generally re-assign
—62—

teachers? A. We do not have any plans to re-assign 
anybody.

Q. All right. Do you plan to hire teachers next year 
say, for instance, if a Negro teacher applies to teach 
in your school system next year without specifying that 
he wants to teach in the Field High School, will you give 
him the same consideration for employment at Gould 
High School as you will, say, a white person who makes 
an application1?

Mr. Light: Your Honor, if I may—Mr. Walker’s 
question consists of the Plan. May I supply a copy 
to the witness so he can refer to that?

The Court: All right,
(Mr. Light furnished the witness with a copy of 

the Plan.)

A. (Referring to the document) This Plan says that 
“During the 1966-’67 school year, the administrative staff 
of the School District will attempt to employ Negro teach­
ers in a predominantly white school on a limited basis, 
and particularly in positions that do not involve direct 
instructions to pupils—

Q. Let me interrupt there if you don’t mind. We have 
made this a part of the record and the Court can see it, 
of course. Now, I wa n1 to know whether you prepared this

- 6 3 -
Plan for faculty desegregation? A. I prepared all of 
this plan.

Q. You prepared this, but nevertheless you don’t know 
what the plan is without referring to it? A. That we



70

will in ’66 and ’67 do just what the plan says. We will 
attempt to employ Negro teachers in predominantly white 
schools on a limited basis.

Q. I asked the question if you prepared the plan, but 
you are not familiar with it. A. I am familiar with it 
in general. I could not recall the plan word-for-word with­
out looking at it. It’s eight or ten pages of typewritten 
material and I wouldn’t want to answer something like 
that without referring to this to be sure that I gave the 
right answer.

The Court: What page of the plan was that?
Mr. Walker: Page 5, Your Honor.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Do you have any plans for 
immediately closing the gap which exists between Negro 
teacher salaries and white teacher salaries? A. This ques­
tion was answered earlier. Beginning with the 1966 and 
’67 school year, the gap will be closed.

Q. You are going to close it? A. Yes.
—64—

Q. There will be one single set of salaries? A. A single 
salary schedule.

Q. What about for this year, do you have any plans to 
give the Negro teachers back pay? A. This year’s con­
tracts have already been made on the basis of expected 
income. We could not change this year without disrupting 
the—

Q. You stated before that you thought Negro teachers 
on paper were as well qualified as the white teachers. 
Now in terms of their teaching competence in the Gould 
District, is it your professional judgment that the Negro 
teachers are as well prepared to teach in the Gould public 
schools than the white teachers?

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



71

The Court: You asked him that once.
Mr. Walker: I’m leading up to something else, 

Your Honor.

A. They are as well prepared as far as I know.
Q. They are as well prepared. So, that, when teacher 

desegregation—when you do begin teacher desegregation, 
you’re not going to have any Negro teachers dismissed, 
or you are not going to have very many Negro teachers 
dismissed because of incompetence in case anybody is

— 65—

dismissed! A. I can’t tell you what we are going to dis­
miss. We are not going to dismiss anybody except for 
incompetence.

Q. All right. I want to ask you now, how many Negro 
teachers in the Field school are incompetent! A. How 
many are incompetent!

Q. Yes. A. I don’t think any of them are.
Q. So, that, all of the people who are now teaching in 

the school system, once you undertake faculty desegrega­
tion, you won’t have any problem with dismissals! A. 
No, we are not anticipating any.

Q. I want to know about this money you plan to get. 
Now, if you are going to build a Negro high school, it’s 
contingent, isn’t it, upon the voters approving a bond 
issue! A. That’s right.

Q. If the voters don’t approve a bond issue, what are 
you going to do! A. We haven’t made any alternate 
plan because we don’t have any doubt but that they will 
approve it. We have talked with people enough to know 
that they will approve it. In fact, they would like to do 
it sooner, and the fact that it will not involve a millage

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

increase.



72

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct

— 66—

Q. Let’s assume that it doesn’t pass, what plans do you 
have?

Mr, Light: Your Honor, I believe he has answered.
The Court: He has answered that. He said he 

has made no plans because he is sure it is going 
to pass.

Q. What plans do you have for offering the pupils now 
enrolled in the Field High School better facilities than 
they already have, come January? A. We plan to use 
funds from the Act that I mentioned several times to pro­
vide a lunch-room, and not only the lunch-room, but to 
provide free lunches for those who can not pay for them.

Q. And that’s the extent of it. How much money are 
you going to get under the Act? A. We qualify for ap­
proximately $65,000.00.

Q. How much of that do you plan to use at the Negro 
school—high school? A. About $50 thousand of it.

Q. At the Negro high school? A. High school and ele­
mentary. It would be hard to break it down as to how 
much to use at the high school. The lunch-room would 
take a good part of that money—

The Court: He is not interested in that. He’s
—67—

interested in the division between the colored and 
the whites.

A. Well three-fourths of it at least will be used for the 
Field school.

Q. All right. Now, how much money can you borrow in 
1966 when your other money is released? A. You mean 
in 1967?



73

Q. Yes, when you have retired your obligation in 1966? 
A, On the basis of the present assessed valuation of the 
property of the School District, we would be able to 
borrow approximately $100,000.

Q. Approximately $100,000. Now, I ask you, as a pro­
fessional educator, isn’t—could that money be better spent 
for the District by having whatever facilities that you 
plan to construct, constructed on the premises of the 
Gould high school, rather than in some other part of the 
city? A. No, I think it would be much better to build 
the new facility on the campus of what is now the Field 
Elementary school for several reasons. In the first place, 
we do not have room or space available on the campus 
of Gould to erect such a building. We do have space 
available on the campus of the Field Elementary school, 
and if we build this new school on or near the campus of 
the Gould high school it would be separated by eight or

- 68-

ten blocks and across a main highway from the elementary 
school.

Q. Isn’t it true that you could purchase property right 
adjacent to the Gould High School without too much diffi­
culty—isn’t there property available that’s now being used 
— A. I don’t know of any property available anywhere 
near the present Gould high school.

Q. Isn’t there farming property right adjacent to the 
Gould High School?

The Court: What property?
Mr. Walker: Farming.

A. There isn’t.
Q. There isn’t? A. There isn’t any farming property 

that I know of.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



74

Q. I saw a large field down there the other day, and as 
far as I conld see was clear land. What’s that land being 
used for! A. That land has been bought by an indi­
vidual and is to be made into lots for building.

Q. But, nevertheless, in case the District were of the 
mind to, they could have that property condemned—put 
to public use? A. We could condemn it, yes.

— 69—

Q. All right. Now, isn’t it true that by building an en­
tirely new high school, you are going to be duplicating 
facilities that you already have? A. We plan to get much 
better facilities.

Q. Aren’t you going to be unnecessarily duplicating some 
facilities? A. No.

Q. This means you are going to have two libraries, 
doesn’t it? A. Certainly. We will have one library in 
each of the high schools.

Q. It means you will have to have two auditoriums, 
doesn’t it? A. That’s right.

Mr. Light: May it please the Court, I know what 
Mr. Walker is getting at and I suggest to the Court 
that it is not relevant to the issues in this lawsuit. 
He is getting at the future projected planning of 
where we are going to locate the school in this 
District and it’s irrelevant to the issues in this 
lawsuit.

Mr. Walker: Your Honor, I think this is perhaps 
the most relevant aspect of this whole case.

— 70—

The Court: Well, I understand your point Mr. 
Light. I ’ve already been very liberal in these hear­
ings and have followed very few rules of relevance 
or evidence. Go ahead, Mr. Walker.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



75

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Now you have an agricul­
ture building already! A. Yes.

Q. This means you have to build a new agriculture 
building, doesn’t it! A. That’s right.

Q. Now, couldn’t you use the money you are going to 
use for a new agriculture building on the facility you 
already have at the white school, and offer better and 
improved facilities for all the people in the District, 
rather than just the few over in the Field school! A. No, 
because I anticipate that some students will choose to go 
to Field High School, and if we just have the one build­
ing on the Gould High school campus, they would have to 
go clear across town to get to it.

Q. But, then, maybe what I ’m getting to—and I will 
come back to this then—is why is it necessary to have a 
Freedom of Choice Plan in a District so small! A. I 
think that that Freedom of Choice Plan is the most liberal 
plan that we could use and it is far more liberal than 
in many other schools.

— 71—

Q. Do you plan from this point on to run those schools 
in the District according to the Freedom of Choice!

The Court: Now, we’re getting pretty far afield.
Mr. Walker: Well, Your Honor, they’re commit­

ted to HEW that they are going to have Freedom of 
Choice for a couple of years. Now—

The Court: The next two years is as far as 
I ’m interested in looking this morning.

Mr. Walker: All right, Your Honor.

Q. (Resuming) All right, back to the site of construc­
tion. You already have a cafeteria at the white high 
school! A. That’s right.

T. Raymond Sage■—for Plaintiffs—Direct



76

Q. This means you have to spend more money to build 
one at the Negro school, doesn’t it? A. That’s right.

Q. And the same holds true for all the facilities, which 
are not adequate, at the white high school. Isn’t that true? 
A. I don’t follow you there.

— 72—

Q. I mean if you have an adequate science laboratory 
at the predominantly white high school, this means that 
you have to spend money to duplicate that facility at the 
Negro high school? A. The science laboratory today is 
adequate for the pupils we have there now. It would not 
be adequate for the total high school population of the 
District. Neither would our cafeteria.

Q. Now, the same holds true with the Business Depart­
ment, doesn’t it? A. That’s right.

Q. This means that you have to spend a lot more money 
for equipment and for materials for the Negro school in 
order to just have an equal department with the white 
school? A. I suppose so. It would take more money to 
build a new building and equip it.

Q. I want you to identify these pictures for the record. 
Do you identify that as the front of the Gould high school? 
A. That’s right.

Q. And this is a side view or back view of the Gould 
high school? A. That’s right.

Q. And this is a larger picture of the Negro library, and
— 73—

this is a picture of part of the cafeteria of the white 
school? A. That’s right.

Q. And these are parts of the premises of the Negro 
school? A. I couldn’t identify these as to where they 
were taken.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Direct



77

Mr. Walker: I would like to have these marked 
Plaintiffs’ Exhibits 8, 9, 10 and 11, unless you have 
some objections.

The Court: Write on the back of them what they 
are because I won’t know.

Mr. Walker: All right. I won’t do it nowT but 
I’ll do it during the lunch hour. I wish to intro­
duce them, Your Honor.

The Court: All right. They are received.
(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibits Nos. 8, 9, 10 

and 11, previously marked for identification, 
are received in evidence and made a part of 
this record.)

Mr. Walker: I have no more questions of Mr. 
Sage.

The Court: All right.

Cross Examination by Mr. Light:
—74—

Q. Mr. Sage, I believe Mr. Walker inquired about your 
academic training and you mentioned your college degrees. 
How long have you been in the business of an educator? 
A. More than I care to admit—since 1924.

Q. Has that all been in Arkansas? A. No.
Q. Would you just very briefly tell what experience you 

have had in the business of education? A. Since 1924, I 
have been in the business of education either as classroom 
teacher, coach, principal or superintendent,

Q. What jobs as superintendents did you have before 
you came to the Gould School District as superintendent? 
A. Superintendents?

Q. Yes. A. Superintendent at Mount Holly-—
Q. For how many years? A. Two years.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



78

Q. All right? A. (Continuing) At Dermot—
Q. For how many years? A. One year. And at Cotton 

Plant for eleven years.
Q. All right, sir, and that was all prior to your coming 

to Gould in your present capacity? A. Yes, sir.
— 75—

Q. I wonder if you would describe just very briefly to 
the Court the nature of your School District, with refer­
ence to whether it’s agricultural or rural or urban or in­
dustrialized? A. Our School District is primarily rural. 
The prevailing economy, of course, is agriculture.

Q. What agricultural products are principal there? A. 
Cotton, soy beans and some rice. There is no industry in 
the School District.

Q. All right, sir, and what is the approximate geograph­
ical area of the District? A. Approximately eighty square 
miles.

Q. Is the town of Gould the only urban incorporated 
area in the entire District? A. That’s right.

Q. And are all of the schools that you have been talking 
about this morning within the limits of the town of Gould? 
A. That’s right.

Q. Is there any land in the District—any significant 
amount of land in the District that is not subject to the ad 
valorem tax from which you get your revenue to run your 
schools? A. Yes, the Arkansas State Penitentiary, or 
State Farm, as it’s commonly called, lies almost wholly

— 76—

within our District and takes about—I would say—twenty 
thousand acres.

Q. And the District derives no tax revenue from that 
land, is that correct? A. Correct.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



79

Q. Now, you have made some estimates earlier with re­
spect to the population of the District. I ’ll hand you an 
instrument and ask you whether that is some data pre­
pared by you, at my request, from the records of the 
Gould School District? A. That is right.

Q. All right, sir. Will you please refer to that and tell 
me what the approximate total population of the Gould 
School District is!

The Court: Are you going to introduce that 
directly?

Mr. Light: Yes, sir, I intend to.

A. Estimated at three thousand.

The Court: The total population?
Mr. Light: That’s the total population, not the 

school population.
The Court: The total population. Both adults and

—77—
children of the District?

Mr. Light: Yes, sir.
The Court: All right.

Q. (Mr. Light, resuming) Now, of that three thousand, 
approximately how many are white and how many are 
Negro? A. I would say an estimated eighteen hundred 
Negro and twelve hundred white.

Q. Now, do you have recorded on that instrument the 
enrollment of the schools for September 1965, and if so, 
would you state the enrollment of the schools that are at­
tended exclusively by Negroes? A. September there were 
five hundred and nine.

Q. And how many Negro students did you have in Sep-

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



80

ternber in the previously all-white school! A. Seventy- 
one.

Q. And how many white students did you have enrolled 
in September! A. Two hundred and ninety-nine.

Q. All right. In other words, your school population, 
the students in your schools, there are approximately two 
Negroes for each white? A. That’s approximate.

Q. All right, sir. Now does that instrument that I just
—78—

handed you, and which I ’ll now mark for identification— 
The Court: Defendants’ Exhibit No. 1.

Q. (Continuing) Defendants’ Exhibit No. 1, does that 
also contain a schedule of the District’s bonded obligations 
with reference to prior bond issues? A. That’s right.

Q. And is that accurate? A. That’s accurate as far as 
I could get from our books.

Mr. Light: Tour Honor, now that is the only in­
formation other than what he has already testified 
to, and I offer this in evidence as Defendants’ Ex­
hibit No. 1.

The Court: It may be received.
(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibit No. 1, previ­

ously marked for identification, is received in 
evidence and made a part of this record.)

Mr. Light: I ’ll hand Mr. Walker a copy of it.

Q. (Continuing) What is the approximate budget of the 
Gould School District for the 1965-’66 school year? A. 
Our anticipated income is approximately $225,000.

Q. And is that included from all sources? A. From all

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross

sources.



81

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross

—79—
Q. Approximately how much of that is derived from ad 

valorem taxes! A. Approximately sixty thousand dollars.
Q. And approximately how much from State minimum 

foundation aid!

The Court: “Minimum” what!
A. Minimum Foundation program.

Mr. Light: That’s the principal State aid, Your 
Honor, to—

The Court: That’s what they call the State Pro­
gram!

Mr. Light: Yes, sir.
The Court: All right.

A. Approximately $132,000.
Q. And do you also project some income in the form of 

State aid for transportation to support your bus program! 
A. Yes, that’s approximately $14,000.

Q. All right, and do you also have some projected income 
from tuition (At this point Mr. Walker conferred with Mr. 
Light off the record) Mr. Walker has kindly consented to 
stipulate these figures, but this is the last one, so I ’ll go

—80—
ahead and inquire about it. To shorten this, do you have 
sixty-six students in September from the Wells Bayou 
District on a tuition basis! A. That’s right.

Q. And is your agreement with that District an annual 
payment of $114.00 per student for each one you take! A. 
It is this year.

Q. So that would project an income of approximately 
$7500 from the tuition students. Very well. Now with re­
gard to the physical facilities in the District when was the



82

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross

building that is now used as the Gould Elementary school 
constructed? A. I believe in 1947.

Q. Was it constructed at that time for use as an ele­
mentary building? A. No, it was built for use of the high 
school building.

Q. And subsequent to that time it has been converted 
and is used as an elementary building? A. That’s right.

Q. Can you tell the Court the approximate cost of con­
struction of that building? A. I would have to refer to 
the bond issue for that, but I believe—I thought it was the 
bond issue of 1947.

The Court: $81,950.00?

The Witness: That’s right. 
Mr. Light: That’s correct.

—81-

Q. (Continuing) That was the purpose of that bond is­
sue, to construct that building, is that correct? A. That 
is correct.

Q. Now, is there a facility in that building, the ele­
mentary school, that is now used by high school students ? 
A. Yes, one room of this building formerly was the audi­
torium.

Q. The high school students use it now for what pur­
pose? A. The high school pupils now use that as a study- 
hall and library.

Q. And is that room that’s used by the high school stu­
dents near to or far from the high school building where 
the high school students carry on their other activities? A. 
It’s on the opposite end of the building from the high school 
building.

Q. Does this require the high school students to walk



83

all the way through the elementary school to get to this— 
A. They have to walk all the way through the elementary 
building, or go around outside.

Q. Now, is that a desirable situation! A. It’s very un­
desirable and we’ve been told of it by the State Depart­
ment—

—82—
Q. All right, now you mentioned that the Gould high 

school was built in 1964. Is that correct! A. That’s right.
Q. Where were the funds obtained for that purpose! 

A. The bulk of the funds was obtained from insurance pro­
ceeds from the fire which destroyed the building which had 
been used as an elementary building.

Q. Do you recall the amount of proceeds available from 
the insurance! A. For replacement of the building, ap­
proximately between $98 and $99 thousand dollars.

Q. And those proceeds were all consumed for the pur­
pose of constructing this new high school building, is that 
correct! A. Correct.

Q. There is an allegation in the complaint that this is an 
airconditioned building. Is that true? A. There is one 
room in this new building which is airconditioned, that is 
the combination lunch-room and auditorium, which is 
called a cafitorium.

Q. All right. There is also an allegation with respect to 
central heating, and Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 3 shows a 
register near the bottom of the floor in what appears to 
be a classroom, and Mr. Walker has marked on the back 
“central heat” . Is there a central heating system in that

—8 3 -
building? A. There is not a central heating system in that 
building any where.

Q. Is there a central heating system in any building be­
longing to the School System? A. There is not.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



84

Q. Do you know the purpose of that register! Is it a 
circulation register, or what? A. I think that register is 
for return for income and outgo of air for the furnace.

Q. You have reference now to Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 3? 
A. Correct.

Q. Are the laboratory and science facilities in the Gould 
high school—or near the Gould high school—in a separate 
building, adequate? A. No, they are not adequate.

Q. I don’t know to what extent you described them ear­
lier, would you very briefly say what they amount to! A. 
I ’ll tell you what building this was in, which was formerly 
used as a part of a barbecue business, and the changes that 
were put in that building to make it a science laboratory 
were a combination teacher’s desk and demonstration desk, 
equipped with gas burners, and that is about the only thing 
we put in the building.

Q. You mentioned earlier that the building was obtained
—84—

from the previous Japanese relocation camp at Roher in 
1949. Were those buildings obtained for use on both the 
Field campus and the Gould school campus? A. Yes.

Q. Is there a gymnasium on the campus where the Gould 
high school and Gould Elementary school is located? A. 
Yes, there is a frame building.

Q. I hand you Exhibits 2 and 3 and ask you if those are 
the front and side of the gymnasium? A. (Examining ex­
hibits) This is a picture of the gymnasium.

Q. You have identified Defendants’ Exhibit 3 as a pic­
ture of the gymnasium. WYmld you tell me what Defend­
ants’ Exhibit 2 is a picture of ? A. That’s the vocational 
agriculture building.

Mr. Light: Your Honor, I offer these into evi­
dence.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



85

The Court: They may be received, but before you 
leave write on the back what they are.

Mr. Light: Yes, sir.
(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibits 2 and 3, pre­

viously marked for identification, are received 
in evidence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Are there shower facilities in the gymnasium build­
ing, that we have just referred to? A. Yes, there are

—85—
shower facilities on one side of the gymnasium that we use 
as a boys’ dressing room with shower facilities, and on the 
other side the girls’ dressing room there is a—you might 
call it shower facilities, but I don’t believe there’s a shower 
head on—

Q. Well, I hand you what’s been marked Defendants’ Ex­
hibit 6 for identification and ask you if that’s a picture of 
the so-called shower facility for girls? A. That is right.

Q. And I hand you what has been marked Defendants’ 
Exhibit 5 and ask you if that is a picture of some of the 
shower facilities in that building? A. That’s right.

Q. Are these dressing rooms—the boys and girls dressing 
rooms—“long-like” affairs located under the permanent 
seats in the gymnasium? A. That’s right.

Q. All right. I hand you what has been marked Defend­
ants’ Exhibit 4 and ask you if that’s another picture of the 
dressing rooms in that building? A. That’s right.

Mr. Light: I offer these in evidence, Your Honor.
—86—

The Court: They may be received.
(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibits 4, 5 and 6, 

previously marked for identification, are re-

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Gross



86

ceived in evidence and made a part of this 
record.)

Q. Are there bath-room facilities, as Mr. Walker says, 
or toilet facilities, located in that building? A. They are 
very inadequate. There’s one commode on each side, one 
in each dressing room.

Q. I hand you what I have marked as Defendants’ Ex­
hibits 7 and 8 and ask you if those are pictures of the 
toilet facilities located in the gymnasium building of the 
Gould high school? A. That’s right.

Q. That’s a picture of each of the two toilet facilities, 
is that correct? A. That’s right.

Mr. Light: I offer those in evidence, Your Honor.
The Court: They may be received.

(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibits 7 and 8, pre­
viously marked for identification, are received 
in evidence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Now, with respect to the vocational agricultural
- 8 7 -

building on the Gould high school campus, I ’ll ask you if 
Defendants’ 9 is a picture showing the facilities in that 
building? A. That’s correct.

Q. Does Defendants’ Exhibit No. 9 portray substantially 
all the facilities in that building? A. Yes, sir.

Mr. Light: I offer that, Your Honor.
The Court: It may he received.

(Whereupon Defendants’ Exhibit 9, previously 
marked for identification, is received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



87

Q. Mr. Sage, the vocational agricultural building at the 
Field high school has been mentioned—strike that please— 
The Home-Ec. building I believe is referred to. Is that a 
facility at the Field high school that is located in a sepa­
rate building from the principal building f A. That’s right.

Q. What type of equipment and teaching aids are avail­
able in that? A. We have approximately the same type of 
equipment and teaching aids that we do in the Gould high 
school, each is in a separate building, each was a remodeled

- 8 8 -
building from the prisoner-of-War camp, they are equipped 
with the usually accepted equipment of a Home-Economics 
Department, such as stoves, sewing-machines and so on.

Q. And are those stoves and other facilities you have 
mentioned, reasonably modern facilities? A. Yes.

Q. At least of equal degree of those available to a 
school, is that correct? A. That’s right.

Q. I hand you what I’ve marked Defendants’ Exhibit 
No. 11, and ask you if that is a picture of the building con­
taining the Home-Ec. facility at Field high school? A. 
That’s right.

Q. I hand you what I’ve marked Defendants’ Exhibit 12, 
and ask you if that’s a picture of a room in the interior 
of that building? A. That’s right.

Q. What is that room? A. That would be the sewing 
room I believe.

Q. I hand you what I ’ve marked as Defendants’ Exhibit 
13 and ask you if that’s also a picture of a room in that 
building? A. Yes.

Mr. Light: I offer those, Your Honor, in evidence.
—89—

The Court: They may be received.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



88

(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibits 11, 12, and 
13, previously marked for identification, are 
received in evidence and made a part of this 
record.)

Q. I hand you what has been marked Defendants’ Ex­
hibit 10 and ask you what that is—is that a picture of the 
front of the Field high school? A. Yes, that is right.

Mr. Light: I offer that also, Your Honor.
The Court: It may he received.

(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibit 10, previously 
marked for identification, is received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Mr. Sage, can you tell the Court how much was spent 
last year on the library at Field high school, and how much 
was spent by the District on the library at Gould high 
school? A. I don’t know exactly, somewhere in the neigh­
borhood of $300 at each school.

Q. Approximately the same amount? A. Approxi­
mately the same amount.

Q. Have you been to the Field high school recently, and
- 9 0 -

are you familiar with the appearance of the library there? 
A. Yes.

Q. I ’ll ask you if that photograph that I’m marking De­
fendants’ Exhibit 14 is a picture of a portion of the library 
at the Field high school? A. That’s right.

Q. And I’ll ask you if the pictures I ’ve marked Defend­
ants’ 15 and 16 are additional hooks belonging to the li­
brary, located in the Principal’s office? A. That is right.

Q. Do you happen to know, Mr. Sage, why the Principal

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



89

keeps the books pictured in Defendants’ 15 and 16 in his 
office instead of out in the library? A. The only reason I 
would venture is—

Q. If you don’t know, don’t say. A. I don’t know.
Q. All right. I ’ll offer those, Your Honor.

The Court: They will be received.
(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibits 14, 15 and 

16, previously marked for identification, are 
received in evidence and made a part of this 
record.)

Q. What is the most modern physical facility you have 
in the Gould School District? A. The most modern, the

—91—
newest, is the Gould high school, the latest one to be built.

Q. All right. When was the Field Elementary school 
started? A. The Field Elementary school? That was 
started before I became Superintendent at Gould, some­
where in the mid nineteen-fifties—is that right?

Q. Do you have any papers with you that would reflect 
that information? A. I don’t believe I do.

Q. To refresh your recollection, didn’t 1 hand you back 
some papers you prepared for my use this morning?

(The witness is looking through papers)
Is the instrument you are now referring to a summary 

that you prepared from the records of the District and 
supplied to me at my request? A. That’s right.

Q. Would you please refer to it with reference to the 
Field Elementary school, and tell the Court when that 
building was constructed? A. The bond issue was April 1, 
1954.

Q. In what amount? A. $45,700.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



90

Q. Have additional sums been devoted to that school 
plan since that time? A. January 1, 1960, $82,400 for a 
gymnasium and auditorium.

— 92—

Q. And has there been any subsequent additions? A. 
In the Summer of 1965 two additional classrooms.

Q. In what amount? A. $9,787.00.
Q. So, the cost of that facility is approximately $138,000 

if my mathematics is correct. Is that rights, Mr. Sage? A. 
That’s right.

The Court: What did this $60 thousand in ’64 go 
to?

Mr. Light: In 1964?
The Court: Did he say ’64 ?
The Witness: In 1954, $45,700.
The Court: And the other figure was 1960?
The Witness: That’s right, 1960, $82,400.
The Court: All right.
Mr. Light: And, again in 1965, Your Honor, 

$9700.00.
The Court: 1965?

— 93—

The Witness: $9,787.00.

Q. So, in terms of cost, that plant is the most expensive 
plant that you have in the System. Is it not ?

The Court: Now, we’re talking about what, the 
elementary sehool?

Mr. Light: The Field Elementary school attended 
exclusively at the present by Negroes, Your Honor. 

The Court: Does he have a total for that?

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



91

Mr. Light: Your Honor, I ’ve added it up—$137,- 
887.00.

The Court: All right.

Q. (Mr. Light, resuming) Is that facility, the Field Ele­
mentary School, modern and satisfactory in every respect 
from an educational viewpoint! A. It’s completely satis­
factory.

Q. I hand you a group of pictures marked Defendants’ 
Exhibits 17 through Defendants’ 22, and ask you if those 
are photographs taken of various views of the interior and 
the exterior of the Field Elementary school plan! A. 
(Examining exhibits) Yes, those are all the Field Elemen­
tary School.

—94—
Mr. Walker: Just a moment. I would like to inter­

pose one objection to one of these.
The Court: Let’s let him identify them by num­

ber first. Are you going to identify them or offer 
them!

Mr. Light: Yes, Your Honor, I offer Defendants’ 
Exhibits 17 thru 22 in evidence.

The Court: Are they identified now?
Mr. Walker: Yes, they’re identified as being part 

of the elementary school.
The Court: I know, but I mean do they have a 

number on the back?
Mr. Walker: Yes, this is Defendants’ Exhibit No. 

18.
The Court: All right.
Mr. Walker: Now Defendants’ Exhibit No. 18 is 

a photograph which shows a part—a portion—of

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



92

the gymnasium, and the gymnasium is a part of the 
high school facility even though it’s attached to the

—95—
elementary school. With that statement, I would 
like to—

The Witness: I would like to add that that is 
used by elementary pupils too.

The Court: With that explanation and qualifica­
tion, they will all be received.

The Witness: It’s not restricted to high school 
students.

(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibits 17 through 
22, previously marked for identification, are 
marked for identification, are received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

Q. (Mr. Light, resuming) When the new high school that 
you propose to build within the next eighteen months or 
two years is constructed, will the gymnasium, a view of 
which is shown in Defendants’ Exhibit 18, be for the use 
of both the high school and the elementary students'? A. 
It will be.

Q. Is the gymnasium at the Gould high school used by 
both the elementary and the high school students? A. Yes.

Q. I show you what has been marked Defendants’ Exhibit 
23 and ask you if that’s a picture of some of the showers 
located in the Field Elementary School gymnasium? A.

—96—
That’s right.

Mr. Light: I offer that in evidence, Your Honor. 
The Court: It will be received.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



93

(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibit No. 23, previ­
ously marked for identification, is received in 
evidence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Now, there was some question, Mr. Sage, about a 
bond issue, or vote of the people, in connection with build­
ing the new Field high school. Is it true that if the School 
Board levies the same tax that it did last year in Arkansas, 
and the people defeat that, the tax continues at the same 
level as last year? A. That’s right.

Q. All right. So, there’s no question about the avail­
ability of this nine mills that’s going to be “ freed-up”, so 
to speak, in January 1967? A. That’s right.

Q. When do you plan to make application for the Federal 
funds for the purpose of building a lunch-room or cafeteria 
facility and vocational-agricultural building on the Field 
campus? A. Within the next ten days.

Q. Have you assurances from the appropriate Federal 
and State officials, that that application will be favorably

—97—
acted upon? A. I have.

Q. Where is your largest facility, landwise? Do you have 
a larger campus at the Gould high school and Elementary 
school campus, or at the Field Elementary School campus? 
A. We have more available space at the campus at the 
Field School.

Q. Is Journalism an elective course at the Gould high 
school? A. That’s right.

Q. In other words, it’s not required of all students? A. 
That’s right.

Q. How do you determine what elective courses you will 
offer at any school, at the high school level? A. All stu-

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



94

dents are required to take certain subjects for four years 
English, American History and other subjects are elective.

Q. Do you give any consideration as to whether or not 
you have a command or request from the students at a 
particular school, for a particular course, in determining 
whether an elective course would be offered? A. That’s
right.

Q. Did you have such a demand for Journalism at Gould? 
A. We had a demand for that because of the training we 
give the students in putting out what we call the “ school

paper” and the “ school Year Book .
Q. Do you have any knowledge of any demand or request 

for Journalism at the Field high school? A. That subject 
has never been mentioned. They never asked for it.

Q. I hand you what has been marked Defendants Ex­
hibit 24 and ask if that’s a list of all of the professional per­
sonnel employed by the Gould School District? A. That’s
right.

Q. Let Mr. Walker examine it. Does that reflect the pro­
fessional, or academic degrees, of each of those persons? 
A. Yes, sir, it does.

Mr. Light: I offer that in evidence, Your Honor. 
The Court: It may be received.

(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibit 24, previously 
marked for identification, is received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Just in brief summary, Mr. Sage, does it show that 
you have two teachers at the Field High school with Mas­
ter’s Degrees and fifteen with Bachelor’s Degrees? A. 
That’s right.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



95

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross

—99—
Q. Does it show that you have only one teacher at Gould 

high school with a Master’s Degree! A. That’s right.
Q. And you have a teacher at the Gould high school de­

ficient in education hours that has only a temporary 
certificate? A. That’s right.

Q. Does it show that you have still another teacher at 
the Gould high school who has not got a certificate? A. 
That’s right.

Q. Based on that, which school is better staffed with re­
spect to academic credentials alone? A. The Field Ele­
mentary and High School.

Q. Now, I wonder if you would refer to the papers you 
were looking at earlier and tell the Court how many Negro 
students were rejected—that is, whose applications or 
preferences to attend the Gould high school and Gould 
Elementary school were denied in each of the fifth, tenth 
and eleventh grades? A. In the fifth grade there were 
six.

Q. The tenth grade? A. The tenth grade twelve and 
the eleventh grade ten.

Q. And in those three grades how many of the Negro 
students’ preferences were granted and were thereby ad­
mitted to the Gould school! A. Fifth grade one; tenth

- 100-

grade nine; eleventh grade two.
Q. That’s nine in the tenth grade? A. That’s right.
Q. All right. Now would you refer to your records and 

tell the Court how many white students from the Wells 
Bayou School District are attending Gould high school, 
and in what grades? Let me limit that to start with, you 
don’t have any Wells Bayou students below the ninth grade,



96

do you! A. That’s right. They have their school for the 
first eight grades.

Q. And that is true with respect to both Negroes and 
whites? A. Yes.

Q. Very well. Now with respect to the white students 
from Wells Bayou, how many and in what grades? A. 
One in the ninth grade and none in the tenth grade, four 
in the eleventh and one in the twelfth.

Q. Would you give the Court the same information with 
respect to the Negro students in the Wells Bayou School 
District who are attending the Gould high school? A. 
Ninth grade two; tenth grade two; eleventh grade two; 
twelfth grade none.

Q. Now this means, with respect to your overcrowded 
grades, which are ten and eleven only at the high school,

— 101—

that you have only two Negro students—correction, only 
four Negro students and four white students from Wells 
Bayou School District attending those overcrowded grades? 
A. That’s right.

Q. Mr. Walker, I believe, asked you if it was not true that 
all of the Negro students in the overcrowded grades were 
from the Wells Bayou School District. I ’ll ask you if by 
referring to the fact that you have nine Negro students in 
the tenth grade at Gould high school, and only two Negro 
students at that level from Wells Bayou, if it isn’t true 
that seven of the Negro students in Gould High school are 
resident students—residents of the District? A. That’s 
right.

The Court: Let’s take a recess. I see you are not 
through.

Mr. Light: I won’t be much longer, Your Honor.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



97

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross

The Court: Yes, but Mr. Walker is not through. 
We will adjourn until one-thirty.

(Whereupon, at twelve o’clock noon a recess was 
taken until one-thirty p.m.)

102-

A fternoon Session

Pursuant to adjournment at twelve o’clock noon, 
the hearing reconvened at one-thirty p.m., and the 
following proceedings were had in open court in the 
presence of all parties:

The Court: Come around Mr. Sage.

W hereupon, Mr. T. Raymond Sage resumed the wit­
ness stand for further examination as follows:

Cross Examination (Cont’d) by Mr. Light:

Q. Mr. Sage, I believe I understood you to say that you 
have sixty Negro students and six white students, total, 
from the Wells Bayou School District. Is that correct! 
A. That’s right.

Q. Was the Freedom of Choice Plan—

The Court: Say that again please, Mr. Light.
Mr. Light: I asked whether he had a total of 

sixtv Negro students and six white students from 
the Wells Bayou School District this year.

The Court: All right.
—103—

Q. (Continuing) Was the Freedom of Choice Plan ap­
plied by the Board in the same fashion to those students 
as it was to the resident students? A. Just exactly in the
same manner.



98

Q. All right. Could the School District operate during 
this current school year if for any reason it were deprived 
of that tuition revenue paid by the Wells Bayou School 
District! A. I don’t believe we could because that tuition 
would amount to approximately $7000.00.

Q. All right. You mentioned your budget for this year to 
be an expected revenue of about $225,000, I believe. How 
much are your projected expenditures in that budget? A. 
All but about $4,000.00 of that $225,000.00.

Q. All right. How much surplus or balance did you wind 
up with at the end of the 1964-’65 school year? A. Ap­
proximately $1200.00.

Q. $1200.00 out of a $225,000.00 budget. Is that typical 
of the sort of surplus you’ve been winding up with?

The Court: It’s typical of a good many school dis­
tricts.

Q. All right, I ’ll ask you— A. I would say this, that 
each year for the past five or six years we have spent more 
than we have taken in.

—104—
Q. All right. We started this school year with about a 

$1200.00 balance from last year. Is that correct? A. 
That’s correct.

Q. If, for some reason, you wanted to employ an addi­
tional teacher in your District at this time for the re­
mainder of this school year, are there any proceeds to pay 
a teacher’s salary? A. Not any.

Q. This cotton-picking situation has been mentioned, Mr. 
Sage, would you tell the Court what you know about the 
cotton-picking situation? A. As long as I can remember, 
it has been the custom at each school, the Gould as well 
as the Field School, for different classes to have fund­

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



99

raising projects to buy something for the use of the class, 
and they have money-raising activities for those purposes 
and I assume that this cotton-picking is one of the ways 
that the students at the Field high used to raise money for 
their classes.

Q. Is that a type of project—that is cotton-picking— 
that has been employed by the students at the Gould high 
school? A. Yes.

Q. Do they do that during school hours or on Saturdays 
and after school? A. On Saturdays and after school.

Q. Are there other similar projects some classes use in­
stead of cotton-picking for money? A. Yes, car-washes.

—105—
Q. Let me ask you this, is this a voluntary program 

whenever a class wants to do it or is it mandatory? A. 
It’s voluntary.

Q. All right, sir. Does the Gould School District engage 
in transporting students to and from school in buses? A. 
Yes.

Q. How many buses do you have? A. Seven buses.
Q. Are the buses run presently, during this school, on a 

segregated or desegregated basis? A. They are run on a 
desegregated basis.

Q. In the Gould high school, do you have an athletic 
program? A. Yes, we do.

Q. Do you have a foot-ball program? A. Foot-ball.
Q. And a basket-ball program? A. That’s right.
Q. Are any of the Negro students now attending the 

Gould high school participants in those programs? A. 
Yes, in the foot-ball program there were eight Negro boys 
that came out at the start of the Season practice for the 
team and some of them dropped out and one stayed through 
until about the last two weeks of the Season.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



100

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross

—106—
Q. And he played and participated? A. He played in 

every game during the time that he was in school.
Q. And that was foot-hall? A. That was foot-ball. We 

have several—I don’t know the exact number—we have 
four or five out of a total of ten or twelve boys that went 
out for basket-ball.

Q. Mr. Sage, as I understand it you have approximately 
seventy-one Negro students in the Gould high school in 
the Gould schools—attending with approximately 299 or 
300 white students, one in five approximately. That’s the 
first time there has ever been any desegregation in this 
School District, is that correct? A. Yes, sir.

Q. With that substantial number of Negro students have 
you had any difficulty whatever? A. None whatsoever.

Q. Are some of the Negro students who are attending 
Gould High School and Elementary School, if this applies 
to the Elementary school, on the honor roll? A. There are 
several in each class.

Q. These students apparently were sufficiently prepared 
from their education they received in the Field School to 
excel academically in the Gould High School? A. That’s 
right. They couldn’t have made the honor roll attending

—107—
here for the first time, unless they had adequate prepara­
tion before that.

Q. “Average daily attendance” is a term that, as an Ed­
ucator, you frequently deal with, is it not? A. Yes.

Q. Is that a calculation you must make and report 
monthly to the State Department of Education and upon 
which the amount of State aid that is paid you, is calcu­
lated? A. That’s right.



101

Q. Is the average daily attendance, as compared to the 
number of students enrolled, any different in the Field 
High School as compared to the Gould High School! A. I 
would say that the average daily attendance in the Field 
High School, the percentage is small.

Q. In other words, the attendance record of the Negro 
students in the Field High School would be somewhat less 
perfect than that in the other school! A. That’s right.

Q. Does that then affect your practical and significant 
pupil-teacher ratio in the Field High School! A. It af­
fects it a great deal. If a teacher has forty students on the 
roll and wouldn’t average but thirty coming to school each 
day, it obviously lightens her roll.

Q. All right, sir. With respect to the PTA using the 
meeting room at the Field School, had the PTA group, 
prior to the time that they are privileged to use that facility

— 108—

for meeting, been using it for PTA purposes, Mr. Sage? 
A. They might have used it partially for PTA purposes 
but our understanding of it was that it was more political 
than PTA.

Q. Is that the reason the Board directed you to terminate 
that? A. That’s right.

Q. Do you permit the use of any of the other property 
belonging to the Gould School District for other political 
rallies and purposes? A. None.

Q. In the formulation of the desegregation plan under 
which the District is now working, did you sit with, and 
confer with the Board while that Plan was being evolved 
and formulated? A. Yes, every meeting—the Board meet­
ings and the Superintendents.

Q. Did you participate in the discussion and hear the 
discussion of members of the Board? A. Certainly.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



102

Q. Can you tell the Court what the purpose or objective 
of the Board was in adopting and formulating that Plan? 
A. The objective was, first, to formulate a Plan that would 
be acceptable by the Department of Health, Education and 
Welfare, one that would work in our situation, and that

—109—
was the Main item with which we were concerned. At that 
time, there were racial disturbances in other towns both 
in Arkansas and out of State and we wanted to avoid, as 
much as possible, anything like that happening in Gould. 
We wanted to set up if we could what we would call, you 
might say a model plan, one that other schools could pat­
tern after.

Q. Mr. Sage, at the time the Board had under discussion 
the prospective plan, and was evolving it, were you and 
the Board aware that the Department of Health, Education 
and Welfare had published guidelines indicating they were 
approving plans in Arkansas taking as long as three years 
to complete desegregation? A. Yes, there were many 
schools doing that.

Q. Why did your Board elect to segregate all grades in 
one year in light of that? A. We did that because we 
thought that it would make for a smoother transition, that 
if we put it off and said “now let’s take certain grades this 
year and some more next year and some more the year 
after that” that there might be strife, and agitation con­
cerning that. We wanted to work this in good faith and 
give every student in the twelve grades a freedom of choice.

Q. In the light of the facility that you actually have 
available down there at Gould and the limitations on your

— 110—

financial resources, are you and the Board now undertaking

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Cross



103

to afford every child in the District as nearly an equal edu­
cational opportunity as possible? A. We certainly are.

Mr. Light: Your witness.

Redirect Examination by Mr. Walker:

Q. Mr. Sage, you testified that one teacher who teaches 
in the Gould High School has a temporary certificate but is 
deficient in education hours? A. That’s right.

Q. Is that person’s name Mary Sue Halter? A. That’s 
right. She is not in Gould High School, She is in Gould 
Elementary School.

Q. All right, sir. Now, what is her teaching experience? 
A. I don’t know the exact number of years. I would say 
approximately five years because she taught back before 
I came to Gould and she taught since I have been here too.

Q. How can you justify, Mr. Sage, paying her more 
money than you pay any single Negro teacher in the Sys­
tem? A. We had arrived in the weeks before school was 
to start and we did not have a teacher for that grade, and 
no prospect of one. She had taught that grade with experi­
ence. In the past she had shown herself to be an excellent

- I l l -
teacher and so we just asked her what it would take to get 
her to come to teach.

Q. And you gave her what it would take. At the same 
time didn’t you have lots of applications from Negro teach­
ers who wanted to teach in the Gould School District there ? 
A. Not for the Gould Elementary school.

Q. But just for the Gould Public School System, didn’t 
you? A. Every application I get—I believe this is right— 
has been specifically for either the Gould School or the 
Field School.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



104

Mr. Light: Your Honor, if I may interject this, 
there would he no point in pursuing that since the 
Board does not purport to desegregeate the teaching 
staff this year.

The Court: I understand. And after all, he has 
twice given his explanation, whether it’s a good one 
or a had one, the law of supply and demand.

Mr. Walker: It’s a matter here of money and the 
District chose to divert $800 at least from—well, 
to use $800 that could have been used on the Negro 
school, which certainly needed it, to provide a teacher 
for the white school. I think that’s the point I ’m

— 112—

trying to make more than anything else.
The Court: All right.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) All right, let’s go to other 
things. You have testified that the Home-Economics De­
partment at the Gould School and the one at the Field 
School were about the same, didn’t you? A. Yes.

Q. And you have already identified Defendants’ Exhibits 
13, 11 and 12. Do you recognize them? A. Yes, that’s 
right.

Q. Now I ask you with regard to the materials and the 
equipment within the Home-Economics Department of the 
Gould High School, what was the source, how did those 
things come to be there? A. The equipment?

Q. The equipment and materials and the furniture? A.. 
It was furnished by the School Board.

Q. It was furnished by the School Board. All of that was 
furnished by the School Board. A. The equipment, such 
as sewing machines, were. Now a large part you might

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



105

say the interior decoration, was done by the teacher and 
her pupils. They actually got down and worked at such 
jobs as sanding the floor.

Q. They didn’t buy any of the equipment or anything
- 113-

like that? A. They did not.
Q. Now, I ask you what is your response, what would 

you say if I tell you that the Negro pupils and their 
parents raised money through fund-raising drives to fur­
nish and equip the Homes Economic Building there at the 
Negro High school? A. If they done it, I don’t know that 
they have.

Q. Do you have a break-down of expenditures by the 
District for that Home-Economics program? A. I don’t 
have it available.

Q. Do you know whether or not the living-room set 
that you have in that school was purchased by the stu­
dents? A. I don’t know how it was purchased because it 
was there when I came to Gould.

Q. Do you know whether the carpet that’s on the floor, 
the rug that’s on the floor, was purchased by the students? 
A. It was not purchased by the students. I believe there 
was linoleum on the floor.

Q. You’re right. It was not purchased by the students. 
Do you know that of your own personal knowledge? A. 
I don’t know for a fact without going back into the records 
to see.

Q. All right. Do you know whether the books in the 
library, or at least two sets of encyclopedias in the library, 
were purchased bv the students with money they raised?

— 114—

A. I know some were purchased by students, or by the 
school as a result of solicitations of the citizens in town.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



106

Q. But nevertheless the students were the ones who made 
the solicitation. They raised the money to buy their own 
books for their library? A. Partially.

Q. Do you know whether any of these students were re­
quired during school times by any person at that school, 
the Field school, to leave class en masse and go pick cotton 
to raise money for school programs? A. I do not know 
that.

Q. Can you deny that it took place? A. I can’t deny 
it because I don’t know one way or the other whether they 
were or not.

Q. Now, Mr. Light has asked you about the athletic 
program and you stated you have a foot-ball and a basket­
ball team. Do you have a track team there or a track 
program at the white school? A. Yes.

Q. What other programs, extra-curricular, do you have 
there? A. We have the two vocational clubs, that is the 
FFA, the Future Farmers of America, and the FHA, the 
Future Homemakers of America.

Q. All right, do you have those same clubs at the Negro 
school? A. Yes, they do not have the FFA, no, because

—115—
they do not have an agricultural department.

Q. Now, do they have a foot-ball program at the Negro 
high school? A. No.

Q. But you have more Negro students in the high school 
than you do at the white school? A. That’s right.

Q. Do you have a track program at the Negro school? 
A. I don’t know for sure. It seems like the Coach men­
tioned that they were working out in track, but I don’t know 
whether they attend track meets with other schools, or

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



107

not. They probably have that in connection with their 
physical education program.

Q. Now, in order for a high school pupil to take advan­
tage of the gymnasium for its physical education programs, 
I ask again how is that conducted? A. The physical edu­
cation program for Field School?

Q. Yes. A. For the part of its that’s conducted at the 
gymnasium, the students would have to go from the high 
school over to the—

Q. That’s about four more blocks? A. Yes.
Q. So, that, in rainy weather and the like they still—

— 116—

A. They use a school bus for that. They don’t have to 
walk over there.

Q. They use a school bus. Now, let me ask you do you 
know anything about a prior suit to equalize school facili­
ties in this District? A. I don’t know anything about it 
other than just hearsay.

The Court: You asked him that this morning, 
and he gave you that answer.

Mr. Walker: All right. I want to get into it now. 
I didn’t pursue it at that time.

The Witness: I have not found any records of 
any.

Q. You have not found any records of any suit. Who 
was the Board’s attorney in Gould? A. We do not have 
an attorney for the Board in Gould.

Q. Well, when you have persons to do legal matters, or 
work for you, what record is kept of the decisions and the 
like that are entered either for you or against you? A. 
Since I ’ve been there we have been keeping them in the

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



108

Minutes of the Board. Now this is the first time we have 
been in a position where we needed to have a lawyer.

Q. All right. Now, are you aware that a prior consent 
order was agreed on by the School Board, and certain

■—1 1 7 -
persons in the Negro community there, whereby the School 
District agreed to equalize facilities? A. I do not know 
anything about that other than—

Q. In 1954. A. (Continuing)—what I ’ve been told, just 
by asking around. Nobody seems to know any definite 
answers about it.

Q. Don’t you have any records? A. There’s no records 
in the office. I looked through our file of School Board 
members and I couldn’t find any records.

Q. Haven’t Negro patrons brought this matter to your 
attention since you’ve been Superintendent? A. That there 
was a prior suit?

Q. Yes. A. No, not that I recall, nobody mentioned it.
Q. Now, with regard to the political rallies that you speak 

of, I was under the impression that most of the pupils 
that participated in the picket around the court-house here, 
in Little Rock, were pupils? A. Some of them were but 
most of them were not.

Q. How do you justify excluding the PTA from meetings 
in the Field High School, when some of those people might 
not have been pickets, or even if they had been they are 
still patrons of the District? A. I understand that the

- 1 1 9 -
plans for that march to Little Rock or demonstration at 
the Federal Building in Little Rock, that plans were made 
at the PTA meeting.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



109

Q. How do you understand that! A. Well it just began, 
I couldn’t give any definite proof of it. It’s just what has 
been told. They had to meet for something. They had to 
meet somewhere to make plans for it.

Q. So you are going to cut out their whole PTA program 
on hearsay ? A. We understood pretty well that that’s 
where the plans were made.

Q. But weren’t those plans to protest conditions at the 
Field School—weren’t those PTA members constantly pro­
testing to you about conditions in the Field high school? 
A. As I understand it, the protest demonstration here in 
Little Bock was against the Federal Court, or maybe the 
Office of Health Education and Welfare for approving our 
plan.

The Court: We’re wandering far afield.
Mr. Walker: All right, Judge.

Q. Now, of the $138,000 you say you spent on the Negro 
school, elementary school, since 1954, isn’t it true that the 
‘Lion’s Share’ of that money, approximately $95,000 of

—119—
that money, is actually for the gymnasium which is used 
by all the pupils? A. I think that the bond issue was 
around $85,000.

Q. You don’t have a copy of the budget? A. No.
Q. Could you tell the Court how much money you spend 

over at the Field School each year, in comparison with 
what you spend at the Gould School? A. No.

Q. Do you spend more for the Field School, than you do 
for the Gould school—high school? A. I would think so. 
We have more teachers to pay, we pay for operation of 
the buses and janitorial services and things of that kind.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



110

The Court: Well, that wouldn’t be all attributable 
to the Gould school. It would be attributable to both 
of them. Mr. Walker wasn’t asking you that.

Mr. Walker: I just wonder whether you spent 
more money on the Negro School—

The Court: He means directly attributable—
Mr. Walker: Directly attribtuable?

— 120—

A. I wouldn’t answer that. I don’t have the figures to 
show.

Q. But you have said because you have more Negro 
teachers, you probably would spend more money for teach­
ers at the Negro School than you do at the white school? 
A. I would think so.

Mr. Walker: At this point, Your Honor, I ’ve 
already had that identified by Mr. Sage, I would 
like to have it introduced into the record as Plain­
tiffs’ Exhibit 12.

The Court: It may be received.
(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 12, previ­

ously marked for identification, is received 
in evidence and made a part of this record.)

Mr. Walker: This sets out all the teacher’s sala­
ries for the District for 1965-’66, and I think, for the 
record, that it will show that Negroes, in the aggre­
gate, earned considerably less than do white teach­
ers.

The Court: What is that, Mr. Walker?
Mr. Walker: This is a statement which was sub­

mitted by the School District to the State Depart­

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Redirect



I ll

ment of Education with respect to teacher’s salaries 
for the school year.

— 121—

The Court: Mr. Light, are you familiar with 
that? Have you seen it?

Mr. Light: I have not seen it but I have no objec­
tion, Your Honor.

The Court: All right. It will be received.
Mr. Walker: Your witness.

Recross Examination by Mr. Light:

Q. Mr. Sage, I ’ll ask you if this is a picture of the interior 
of the toilet facility located adjacent to the Field High 
School, that’s been discussed here—do you recognize that, 
sir? A. Yes.

Mr. Light: I would like to introduce that, Your 
Honor, as Defendants’ Exhibit 25.

The Court: It may be received.
(Whereupon, Defendants’ Exhibit 25, previously 

marked for identification, is received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

Q. With respect to this donated equipment that was 
mentioned in Mr. Walker’s questioning of you, Mr. Sage, 
is or is it not true that in a school district the size of Gould 
that much of the furnishings and equipment in schools are

— 122—

donated by the patrons and business houses and parents 
of students in the District?

The Court: I know that, Mr. Light.

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—Recross



112

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Direct 

A. That’s right.
Q. As a matter of fact is all of the athletic equipment at 

the Gould high school, has it been donated by the Gould 
Lions Club ? A. That’s right.

Q. All of it? A. And private donations—

The Court: That’s where you got part of your 
library too, from the public.

Q. That is true, is it not, part of your Library! A. Yes, 
sir.

Mr. Light: No further questions.
Mr. Walker: No further questions either Your 

Honor.
(The witness was excused.)
Mr. Walker: I next call the Principal.

W hereupon, H orace E ddy Dalton, called as a witness
—123—

on behalf of the plaintiffs, being first duly sworn, testified 
as follows:

Direct Examination by Mr. Walker:

Q. Would you state your name please? A. Horace Eddy 
Dalton.

Q. Mr. Dalton, how long have you been Principal of the 
Field High School? A. Five years.

Q. What is your experience? A. Beg pardon?
Q. What is your prior experience? A. Director of Ath­

letics.



113

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—-Direct

Q. Have you ever been a school administrator before? 
A. I was administrator in the U. S. Navy in World War 
II, Company Commander.

Q. I see. What is your educational background? A. 
Twenty-seven hours toward a Master’s Degree at the Uni­
versity of Arkansas, twelve post-graduate hours at Phil­
ander Smith College, Special Work, University of Arkan­
sas, Special Work shop course at Philander Smith.

Q. What is your under-graduate preparation? A. My 
under-graduate preparation, secondary education.

Q. You have a B.S. Degree I take it? A. B.A. Degree.
—124—

Q. B.A. Degree. When is the last time you have had any 
teaching responsibility before becoming an administrator? 
A. About four years.

Q. About four years ago. What were you teaching? A. 
Physical education and coaching.

Q. Was the Could Field High School your first experi­
ence as a principal? A. Yes.

Q. I see. Now, I would like for you to tell the Court, 
Mr. Dalton, some things about the Field high school. Would 
you tell the Court whether that high school is in good re­
pair? A. It’s not in the best of condition. I can say that.

Q. Have you bought some of the school’s needs to the 
attention of the School Board? A. Yes, I have. Of course, 
the School Board told me that they were going to build a 
brand new school between 1966 and 1967, and it wasn’t 
necessary to waste a lot of money on those old buildings.

Q. Now, Mr. Dalton, would you mind telling the Court 
how many books approximately do you have in the library 
there? A. Well, actually, since I have been there, I have 
bought three sets of books.



114

Q. What do yon mean by three sets of hooks! A. Well 
just, you know—American Encyclopedia.

—125—
Q. For the record. A. I bought a set last month— 

American.
Q. Where do you keep those? A. I keep those in the 

office because that’s the only way I can keep up with them.
Q. You don’t keep those books that you purchased, out 

in the library? A. I don’t keep them out in the library.
Q. I see. You are in effect are a librarian too? A. 

That’s right.
Q. Would you tell the Court whether or not any of the 

money that you used to purchase those books came from 
patrons of the School District? A. Yes, most of all of it 
came from the white patrons.

Q. You mean through contributions? A. Through con­
tributions.

Q. But it did not come to you from the School Board, 
directly? A. No, No.

Q. Would you tell us about the Home-Economics Depart­
ment there. What about the equipment there? A. Most of 
the equipment was there when I came to work.

Q. That that has been added since you have been there, 
how was it purchased? A. Well, as a matter of fact, we 
haven’t had any added.

—126—
Q. In the five years that you have been there? A. Yes.
Q. All right. Let us go to the Biology Department. 

Would you tell the Court how many, say test tubes—that’s 
all I know—do you have there? A. Yes, I bought a lot of 
equipment last year. Test tubes, burners, and so forth, and 
keep them locked up in a special place because they will get 
away too.

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Direct



115

Q. Do you permit the pupils to use it during any time 
of the day? A. That’s right.

Q. Would you say that your Science facilities, your Bi­
ology facilities are adequate? A. No, I couldn’t say that.

Q. Would you say that anything that is in the Field high 
school is adequate? A. Yes.

Q. What would you say is adequate there? A. Our gym­
nasium is adequate, our elementary department is adequate 
and I can also say that, in the long history of Gould, we 
never had any rating in any part of the school until last 
year. In my second year we got a C class rating in the 
elementary department.

Q. Do you know what the white elementary department’s 
rating is? A. No, I don’t.

—127—
Q. I want to ask you something about the fees, Mr. Dal­

ton. Have you ever required any of these pupils, any classes 
of Negro pupils to take time away from school to go to 
pick cotton to raise money? A. Now, actually what has 
happened, before I came there they had been doing it for 
years. They did it at Menefee—I worked at Menefee al­
most twenty years. The class would go out and pick cotton 
in order that the class should win “ C” . Now, we had a lot 
of complaints last year about this picking of cotton, so this 
year Mr. Sage told me there wouldn’t be anymore picking 
cotton.

Q. How do you raise your money? A. We raise our 
money by selling hot dogs, socials or what not.

Q. Have you pointed out to the School District that you 
don’t have a hot lunch program and that you need one? A. 
We worked on it last year.

Q. Did you get one last year? A. No we didn’t get it, 
but I’ll tell you what actually happened before—we had a 
hot-lunch program before but they wouldn’t support it.

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Direct



116

Q. All right. Let me ask you, do you permit the PTA to 
meet in your school? A. If it’s a PTA, yes.

—128—
Q. How do you determine whether it’s the PTA? A. 

How do I determine whether it’s the PTA? By the election 
that we had last month.

Q. Go ahead. A. We had a railroad election last month 
and people that don’t belong to the PTA came there and 
voted. I know that to be a fact.

Q. But nonetheless you don’t let them meet there now. 
Mr. Dalton, would you tell the Court specifically what im­
provements you think need to be made now, for the dura­
tion of this term, at the Field high school, in order to afford 
the pupils there a far better education than they are now 
getting? A. Well, Mr. Walker, really, the best thing I 
can see for improvements, is more buildings. We have a 
good faculty. The teachers are interested in the children 
and also the school program. There is nothing too much we 
can do at the present time with the type of facility that we 
have.

Q. There has been a few questions about the conditions 
within the school. Now those schools are heated with gas, 
aren’t they? A. That’s correct.

The Court: How long have you had gas at Gould 
—about two or three years?

—129 —
The Witness: Longer than that.

Q. I show you that for identification and ask you if you 
recognize it? A. Yes, I do.

Q. AVould you tell the Court what it is? A. It’s a gas 
stove.

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Direct



117

Mr. Walker: I would like to have that introduced, 
Your Honor.

The Court: It will be received.
(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 13 previously 

marked for identification, is received in evi­
dence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Now, would you say that those are the kinds of stoves 
that you have throughout the high school building ? A. 
Well, those are the latest type. I ’m sure of that because 
we bought one last year. It is insulated.

Q. All right. Now, Mr. Dalton, isn’t it true that that 
building has a lot of cracks in it and, you know, wind just 
blows through during the winter time, and rain comes in 
through those facilities? A. No, no.

Q. That’s not true? A. No, it is not.
—130—

Q. I show you this. Do you recognize that as part of the 
floor?

The Court: I think everybody agrees that the 
building is thoroughly unsatisfactory, Mr. Walker.

Mr. Walker: I introduce 14 and 15.
The Court: They are received.

(Whereupon, Plaintiffs’ Exhibits 14 and 15, pre­
viously marked for identification, are received 
in evidence and made a part of this record.)

Q. Mr. Dalton, just one further thing. You know the 
Board initiated the Freedom of Choice plan last year? A. 
That’s right.

Q. Now, did you ever have occasion to tell any of the 
Negro pupils, before they made any choices, that if they

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Direct



118

made choices for those white schools that they would in all 
probability have academic difficulties over there and if they 
went over there and failed you weren’t going to let them 
come hack? A. No. I didn’t tell them that. Actually, 1 
know from where that information came. It didn’t come 
from me.

Q. That’s all right. I have no further questions.
—131—

Cross Examination by Mr. Light:

Q. Without regard to whether the Field high school is 
a pretty building or not, Mr. Dalton, is it warm enough in 
the Winter to be comfortable where the student can do the 
work? A. Yes, sir.

Q. All right. You’ve been principal of the high school 
for three years, is that correct? I believe Mr. Walker mis­
stated and said “five” . A. Yes, sir.

Q. Are you also charged with the responsibility of being 
Principal of the Field Elementary school? A. Yes, sir.

Q. And have you had both of those jobs for the full 
three years? A. I have.

Q. In that capacity, have you had occasion to work regu­
larly with Mr. Sage and with the members of the Gould 
School Board? A. I have.

Q. Have you found them interested in, and cooperative 
with, the program you had in your schools? A. One hun­
dred percent.

Q. Have you found them willing to donate personally 
from their own pockets for the projects you had in those

- 1 3 2 -
schools? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Every one of them? A. Every one.
Q. With respect to the library books maintained in your

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Cross



119

office, did I understand you to say that the reason they are 
not kept out in the library is because of the problem of 
possible theft? A. That’s right.

Q. Now, are the books kept in your office freely available 
for the students’ use? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Do they in fact use them? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, you have indicated that some of the money with 

which you purchased library books recently, came from 
private donations? A. Yes, sir.

Q. In addition to that, the School Board furnishes you an 
allocation each year of School District funds to purchase 
books, does it not? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Do you happen to recall what the recent allocation 
furnished by the District to you for that purpose was? A.

—1 3 3 -
Three hundred dollars.

Q. Now, with respect to the hot-lunch program, that was 
once maintained at the Field School, you mentioned that 
they wouldn’t support it. Would you explain that a little 
more, when they had a hot-lunch program? A. Well, ac­
tually, they had the hot-lunch program. You know if the 
students don’t eat with the hot-lunch program, you cannot 
support it, and these students would take their money and 
buy candy and what not.

Q. You have to have a certain minimum number of stu­
dents utilizing a program such as that to keep it in a 
financially sound basis— A. Yes, sir, and at Forrest City 
they are having the same trouble now.

Q. In other words, you didn’t find sufficient economic 
demand for that lunch—not enough using it—to keep it 
going. Is that correct? A. That’s right.

Q. But you understand the Board is now in the process 
of getting ready to build a cafeteria on the Field Elemen­

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Cross



120

tary school grounds for the use of both schools? A. That’s 
right.

Q. Thank you very much.

Mr. Walker: Your Honor, I don’t care to extend 
the hearing unnecessarily and unduly. I would like

—134—
to have the Court’s advice as to whether you deem 
it important for us to put on testimony to show 
that there was, perhaps, discouragement on the part 
of the School Administrative Staff?

The Court: Well, if you like. If they have denied 
it categorically.

Mr. Walker: All right. And also testimony tend­
ing to show that repeated demands have been made 
to have the Administration improve the facilities at 
the Gould school?

The Court: I assume that to be true.
Mr. Walker: All right, Your Honor. Well, in that 

case, I want to call one of the young ladies.
(Waiting period.)
Mr. Walker: That’s all right, Your Honor, we 

won’t put on anything further.
The Court: Plaintiffs rest.
Mr. Light: Since this is a non-jury case, I sup­

pose there’s no point in making a Motion?
—135—

The Court: I wouldn’t think so.
Mr. Light: Then I ’ll call a single witness, Mr. 

Sheppard.

Horace Eddy Dalton—for Plaintiffs—Cross



121

W hereupon, W. C. Sheppard, J r. called as a witness on 
behalf of the defendants, being first duly sworn, testified 
as follows:

Direct Examination by Mr. Light:

Q. State your name please sir. A. W. C. Sheppard, Jr.
Q. Where do you live, Mr. Sheppard? A. Gould.
Q. What’s your business? A. Farmer.
Q. How long have you lived in and about Gould, Arkan­

sas? A. Forty-four years.
Q. Are you connected in any way with the Gould School 

District? A. President of the Board.
Q. How long have you been a member of the Gould 

School Board? A. Approximately eight years.
Q. Are you, in addition to being the President, also the

- 136-

senior member with respect to years of service? A. Yes, 
sir.

Q. There has been some mention here of a lawsuit 
against the Gould School District some fifteen years or 
so ago. Do you have any knowledge or acquaintance of that 
lawsuit? A. No workable knowledge.

Q. The lawsuit occurred, if it did occur, before you com­
menced your service, is that correct? A. Right.

Q. Are there, to your knowledge, any papers among the 
records of the District reflecting anything as to that law­
suit? A. None to my knowledge.

Q. All right, sir. Did you participate as a member of 
the Board of Directors in the evolution and adoption of 
the desegregation plan that the District is now working 
under? A. I did.

Q. Can you tell the Court approximately when the 
serious discussions among the Board members in meet­

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Direct



122

ings commenced with respect to adopting this plan? A. 
Restate the question please.

Q. When did the members of the Board start devoting
considerable time to various discussions about adopting a

—1 3 7 -
desegregation plan and trying to decide what kind to adopt? 
A. After it became evident that we were going to have to 
integrate and it was the coming thing and we had to ad­
just to it, we sat down and gave it considerable considera­
tion and tried to figure out the most workable consideration 
for our community.

Q. Did you meet with any people in the community and 
seek out their assistance and guidance and counsel in this 
process? A. Yes, we had special meetings both at the 
white school and the colored school before we formulated 
any plans. We had the same meetings after the plans 
had been formulated, and passed on all the information to 
both sides, both white and colored patrons.

Q. Were you aware, Mr. Sheppard, at the time you 
finally adopted this plan, that the Department of Health, 
Education & Welfare was approving many plans requir­
ing three years to complete the desegregation process? 
A. We were.

Q. Why did your Board, in light of that information 
and knowledge, decide to desegregate entirely in Septem­
ber 1965? A. Like I said before, we realized that it was 
coming. We had to adjust to it. We thought our best

—1 3 8 -
solution was if we started at the first through the twelfth 
—reach all the grades—it would be easier for each in­
dividual, for each class, to adjust, rather than picking 
out a few grades and isolating them, and say “Well, you’re 
picking out my kids to go to this school and my kids to

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Direct



123

go to that one” , and we thought we would give them all 
a freedom of choice and work out a plan that we could 
live with in the community and would make work, and 
in the cases where it was overcrowded and we didn’t think 
it could possibly work, it would jeopardize the education 
of not only the colored students but the white students 
and everybody concerned, we wouldn’t take on any more 
students than we could handle at the present time. We 
would absorb all the students that we could possibly handle 
and not jeopardize their education, or lower our educa­
tion plans at either school.

Q. As far as the educational programs’ conduct on the 
school properties in the District, has the plan proceeded 
satisfactorily? A. We have had wonderful cooperation 
out of the white people and the colored people. I ’d say 
that we have got ninety-five percent of the cooperation out 
of both sides. And the Board as a whole—if I might 
elaborate just a little-—has gone out of our way in going to

—139—
athletics—not just the Board, but all the people, to go 
to our athletic program, or any social functions and to 
discourage any violence or any nagging, or anything of 
that nature, not only with the white patrons, but the 
colored patrons, we’ve had wonderful cooperation. We’ve 
got a small minority that’s not interested in our schools 
or our people or our economy or our welfare that don’t 
even have kids. We haven’t had any trouble out of people 
that’s got kids that’s going to school—colored or white. 
We’ve had wonderful cooperation out of them.

Q. There has been some suggestion here today that 
undue influence or coercion may have been exerted with 
respect to the exercise of the free choices that each stu­
dent in the District was to have. Is there any truth to 
that, as far as you know, Mr. Sheppard?

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Direct



124

Mr. Walker: Your Honor, I think this is a ques­
tion that only the Superintendent—or one person, 
a member of the Staff can answer.

The Court: He can answer it to the extent of 
his knowledge. I don’t know whether he knows it. 
You can only answer to the extent of your own 
knowledge.

A. Rephrase the question so that I ’ll know that I ’m an-
—140—

swering what you are asking.
Q. Do you have any knowledge of any such coercion or 

undue influence attempted to be exercised with respect 
to the students making their choices, that are allocated 
under this plan, by any employees or representatives of 
the Gould School District! A. None whatever, by no mem­
ber of the faculty, no member of the School Board, or no 
farmers. In fact we have encouraged colored people to 
send their kids up to the white school. To the contrary, 
they have failed and refused—people that we thought we 
could talk with if something come up, that we could ad­
just the situation. There hasn’t been any economic pressure 
put on. Almost every member of this Board has got 
colored people living on their farm that have colored 
children in the white schools.

Q. With respect to the fees, Mr. Sheppard, what fees 
are authorized by your Board to be charged to any of 
the students! A. None whatsoever at either school. There 
is fees, additionally, for equipment that the kids have to 
have that if it’s not provided, if the parents can’t afford 
to buy that additional equipment, and they have a project 
to make money, that’s been done since the history of the 
school, both white and colored, they are permitted to and

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Direct



125

IF. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Direct

-—1 4 1 -
have through the past on off-duty hours to raise funds 
to pay for pencils or paper or library books, anything 
that the school did not have the money to furnish.

Q. I ’ll ask you this, with respect to pencils and supplies 
and work books, and things of that character that are 
not supplied and paid for by tax money by the District, 
if a child can’t afford, or his parents can’t afford, to pur­
chase that, is it the practice and policy in the Gould School 
District to supply to that child? A. It is if at all pos­
sible. If not done by the schools, an individual will.

Q. What has the Board done during the some eight years 
that you have been a member, to equalize the facilities 
available to all the children of the District! A. We have 
spent seventy-five percent of the tax money on the Negro 
school system in the past fifteen years.

Q. When the plans that you now have—

The Court: You say the last fifteen years?
The Witness: Yes, sir. Eight of them I ’ve been 

on the Board.

Q. (Continuing) When you complete the construction of 
the proposed high school, what will be the relative—strike 
that and let me approach it this way—When you complete

—142—
the construction of the new high school, would you com­
pare for us then the physical facilities that will exist as 
between the Field School and the Gould School? A. We 
will have more money invested in the Field High School 
System than we do in the Gould High School System.

Q. I did not mean to confine that to high school only. 
When I say “Field School” I mean grades one through 
twelve— A. You call it “System” . I’m referring to the



126

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Cross

Field High School System is one through twelve and the 
Gould High School System is one through twelve.

Q. Your physical plant will be more modern and fax- 
superior at the Field School, is that correct? A. Correct.

Mr. Light: That’s all.

Cross Examination by Mr. Walker-.

Q. And you say seventy-five percent of the District’s 
fund have been spent on the education of Negro pupils 
in the last fifteen years? A. I didn’t say “education” .

Q. Well, what for? A. Facilities.
— 143—

Q. For facilities? A. Educational facilities.

The Court: The amount spent for capital im­
provements ?

The Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walker: At this point, Your Honor, I would 

like to put forth a request, since we don’t have 
anything to counter this, that the defendants pro­
vide the Court and counsel with a statement re­
flecting their expenditures for the last fifteen years.

The Court: Are you talking about capital im­
provements? That’s what he is talking about.

Mr. Walker: That’s i-ight, capital expenditures.
The Witness: Perhaps you will find it in your 

files. We’ve got it filed on record with you. (Ad­
dressing the Court.)

The Court: I don’t understand myself what he is 
talking about. See what details you can get now.

Mr. Walker: All right, Your Honor.



127

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Cross

—144—
Q. (Mr. Walker, continuing) First of all, we’re talking 

about school buildings, aren’t we? A. Right.
Q. Now, you’re saying that between 1950 and 1965, three- 

fourths of every dollar that the District has received has 
been spent on buildings for Negroes?

The Court: He didn’t say that. He didn’t say 
that three-fourths of every dollar—

Mr. Walker: Seventy-five percent of the funds of 
the District.

The Witness: 1 said three-fourths of every tax 
dollar has been spent on the Negro School System, 
since our last bond issue which the records will 
show was 1954.

The Court: Let me see if I understand it. You 
mean out of every dollar of tax receipts—

The Witness: Right.
The Court (Continuing) —an amount equivalent 

to seventy-five percent—not out of every dollar or 
not out of every year—but over the total, seventy- 
five percent, or three-fourths, approximately, of all 
tax dollars received have been spent on capital im­
provements in the Field System?

—145—
The Witness: Correct.
The Court: I understand what he is saying, Mr. 

Walker.
Mr. Walker: All right.

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) Now, let’s go over those 
things. You are really going back to 1954, aren’t you, 
rather than 1950? A. The last bond issue which was when



128

they built this elementary—which is now the elementary 
school at Gould High School, since that date.

Q. It was 1954. So, that’s eleven years. A. The last 
tax money spent on the Gould School System was when 
they built what we use now as the Elementary School. I 
believe that would be in 1954.

Q. So, you’re saying that tax money—the tax dollar— 
rather than income, was spent on capital improvements. 
A. That’s the only income we have.

Q. And you are excluding this new school that you all 
built? A. The new school came from insurance replace­
ment and tax money. It had to be—

Q. How much tax money did you put with that to
- l i e -

build this new school? A. We put approximately—and if 
I ’m incorrect in that Mr. Sage can correct me—we bor­
rowed approximately $20 thousand or $21 thousand. About 
seven of that was used to pay off old indebtedness. About 
three of it was used to complete the dressing rooms at the 
new school. Nine thousand of it was used to build two 
new classrooms at the Field Elementary School that the 
paint is still wet on.

Q. All right, let’s go back over this. Just tell the Court, 
since 1954 what have you built for Negroes in the School 
System? A. Since 1954?

Q. Yes. A. We built nine classrooms. We completed 
the “gym” and auditorium with all the dressing rooms as 
modern as modern could be made.

The Court: The “gym” and what?
The Witness: And stage and dressing rooms. 

They built nine new classrooms, and the gymnasium 
and auditorium with the stage, and the dressing 
rooms and all was built with it.

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Cross



129

Q. (Mr. Walker) Is that all you built? A. That’s all.
—147—

Q. Now, that’s a total cost of $138,000? A. They got 
the figures—approximately that cost.

Q. Now, you came onto the Board in 1957, is that right? 
A. I ’ve been on there about eight years.

Q. Now, at that time the decision which you have heard 
referred to was three years old, and you mean to say that 
you don’t have any knowledge of that decision? A. Sure, 
I have knowledge of it.

The Court: What decision?
Mr. Walker: This is the equalization decision 

whereby the District agreed to equalize facilities.
Mr. Light: Your Honor, may I ask at this point, 

as recently as Monday when Mr. Walker and I had 
a conference in Gould, he and I both were still 
ignorant on that decision and he said he was still 
looking for it and I was still looking for it, and 
I haven’t found it yet, if Mr. Walker has got it, I 
would be interested in seeing it.

Mr. Walker: I will make it available to you. I 
haven’t got it yet either. I ’ve only looked at it. It 
was in the lawyer’s office who handled the case 
back in 1954.

The Court: Who handled the case?
—148—

Mr. WALker: Harold Flowers. The Court might 
recall Mr. Flowers had a number of equalization 
suits at that time, one against the DeWitt District 
and one, of course, against this District—

The Court: Who represented the School District?
Mr. Walker: Mr. Meek of the Rose, Meek Firm.

W. C. Sheppard—for Defendants—Cross



130

Q. (Mr. Walker, resuming) But you have not spent any 
money at all, have you, on the high school facility since 
1954? A. At either school?

Q. I mean at the Negro school? A. Both of them.
Q. But now, all this time, the Board has recognized that 

that Negro school has been grossly inferior, hasn’t it? A. 
Sure.

Q. You’ve done nothing about it? A. We’ve done all 
we possibly can. We’ve exhausted every tax dollar we had 
available. We’ve done all that possibly could be done.

Mr. Walker: That’s all.
Mr. Light: I have no further questions, Your 

Honor, and the defendants rest.
—149—

The Court All right.
Mr. Walker: Your Honor, at this time, we would 

just like to put on one more witness.
The Court: In rebuttal?
Mr. Walker: Yes, Mrs. Carrie Dilworth.

Mrs. Carrie Dilworth—for 'Plaintiffs—Rebuttal—Direct

W hereupon, Mrs. Carrie D ilworth, called as a witness 
on rebuttal, on behalf of the plaintiffs, being first duly 
sworn, testified as follows:

Direct Examination by Mr. Walker:
Q. Would you state your name please? A. Carrie Dil­

worth.
Q. Where do you live Mrs. Dilworth? A. Gould, Ar­

kansas.
Q. Are you employed? A. No, a housewife.
Q. Are you one of the adult plaintiffs in this litigation? 

A. Yes.



131

—150—
Q. Now, Mrs. Dilworth, I ask you if you were a plain­

tiff in an earlier action against this School District? A. 
Ever since the roving law school I have been working for 
it, since 1924.

Q. Is the roving law school that you refer to, the Field 
School! A. The roving law school is the Field—

Q. Is that the same building? A. The same building.
Q. Built in 1924. Has that building been improved at all 

since 1924? A. A little bit because they keep it painted 
up, and they made some additions inside the classrooms 
and things like that.

Q. Now, Mrs. Dilworth, in 1954, when you and other 
persons in Gould sued the School District for Gould, what 
did you seek to have at that time? A. Equal facilities— 
that’s what we asked for, equal facilities.

Q. And do you recall what the decision of the Court was?

The Court: Now, you know I can’t—
Mr. Walker: All right, Your Honor.

—151—
Q. Have you had any discussions with members of the 

School Board about that decision? A. I have.
Q. Your Honor, would you permit some of that to 

come in?

The Court: Go ahead.

Q. Would you relate to the Court—

The Court: Let’s get the times.
Mr. Walker: All right.

Q. (Resuming) Now, when after 1954, after the decision, 
did you have occasion to discuss the matter with the School

Mrs. Carrie Dilivorth—for Plaintiffs—Rebuttal—Direct



132

Board members? A. Well, I discussed with them about 
the hot lunch program.

Q, What year was that? A. That was in about 1954, 
’55, something like that. I can’t tell the exact date.

The Court: When she says “them” , if she knows, 
who did she talk to? Maybe she went to a Board 
meeting, I don’t know. Maybe she talked to them 
individually.

Mr. Walker: Thank you, Judge.

A. Yes, I talked to them individually, and out at the 
School Board.

—152—
Q. All right. What was your understanding of what the 

Board promised to do at that time with regard to the 
System? A. They promised to bring our school up to 
theirs before they put any other building on there, but it 
was ignored.

The Court: But what?

A. It was ignored.
Q. Mrs. Dilworth, since 1954—meaning really since 1958 

and ’59—have you had occasion as a member of the com­
munity, or a member of the PTA or anything like that, 
to discuss with these Board members and the Superin­
tendent any of the problems of the School District? A. 
Well, yes, because when they came to us with this Freedom 
of Choice, I was the one that opened the debate that night. 
I asked Mr. Sage how much room did he have, and he 
didn’t tell the exact amount, but he said he didn’t know, 
and I told him why I asked, because we didn’t have any

Mrs. Carrie Dilworth—for Plaintiffs—Rebuttal—Direct



133

choice down at Fields high, and then the debate opened 
and others asked questions.

Q. All right. Now you heard testimony to the effect that 
Negro patrons did not support the hot lunch program. 
Is that true? A. Yes, they done the best they could. The 
Welfare is better now than it has been. People just didn’t

— 153-

have the money at that time.
Q. All right. Would you tell the Court, Mrs. Dilworth, 

whether or not you are presently a member of the Field 
PTA? A. Yes.

Q. Do you consider the activities that you all have been 
doing political? A. No, it’s not political.

Q. What have been the purposes of your meetings? A. 
Well, everything we centered on was for the school, but 
there was times when elections—

The Court: What election?

A. School elections when we elect a new President and 
things, and whenever the Chair was declared vacant they 
asked me if I would be chairman and I would take it up, 
and they couldn’t hardly get a nomination, and when they 
do get the nominations, they got to be carried through, 
but we couldn’t get anybody to nominate nobody.

The Court: President of the PTA?

A. That is right. There was one elected after all, but they 
were dissatisfied with the election.

— 154—

Q. Who was dissatisfied? A. They tell me the Princi­
pal was. I don’t know who.

Mrs. Carrie Dilworth—for Plaintiffs—Rebuttal—Direct



134

Q. But since then you haven’t had any meetings there ? 
A. No.

Q. I want to ask you about these cotton picking days 
to raise money for the School System. Do you know any­
thing about that? A. Yes.

Q. Tell the Court. A. They picked cotton.
Q. Were they required by the School District to do 

this? A. They picked cotton, some would go out and 
pick until three o’clock—

Q. How often did this occur? A. Well, each room had 
their day to pick cotton.

Q. Do you know whether this has happened this year? 
A. No, not this year.

Q. This perhaps has stopped this year? I have no more 
questions.

Cross Examination by Mr. Light-.

Q. Mrs. Dilworth, it is true, is it not, that the only con­
struction over on the Gould School campus in the past ten 
years involved the replacement of a building that was 
burned? Is that correct? A. Yes, they put one new build­
ing there.

— 155—

Q. That’s the only construction that’s taken place on 
that campus where the Gould High School and the Gould 
Elementary School is, in the last ten years, is it not? A. 
I don’t know that. They built a teacher age there inside.

Q. Is that on that campus? A. That’s on that campus.
Q. When did they build that? A. Sometime in the 

past ten years.
Q. In the past ten years? A. Yes.

The Court: A teacherage?

Mrs. Carrie Dilworth—for Plaintiffs—Rebuttal—Cross

A. Yes.



135

The Court: Where teachers live. Is it a bungalow 
or two?

A. Yes, two families.

The Court: Two-family bungalow?

A. Yes.

W. C. Sheppard, Jr.—for Defendants—Rebuttal—Direct

Mr. Light: No further questions, Your Honor. 
The Court: All right. You may step down.

—156—
Mr. Light: Your Honor, I suppose one or two 

questions on rebuttal about the teacherage.
The Court: All right.
Mr. Light: Mr. Sheppard.

W hereupon, W. C. Sheppard, Jr., called as a witness 
on rebuttal, on behalf of the defendants, having been previ­
ously sworn, testified as follows:

Direct Examination by Mr. Light:

Q. Mr. Sheppard, are you familiar with the teacherage 
that’s been mentioned? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Would you tell how that came about and when? A. 
There’s two apartments, one for the Principal and one 
for the Superintendent to live in—living quarters. They 
didn’t have any living quarters. They pay rent on the 
building. The building money came from a revolving fund. 
It was not a tax money. The rent is paid from the differ­
ent apartments and goes back in to pay for the space 
with the revolving money.



136

—157—-
Q. It’s something that the District runs substantially at 

no loss and no expense! A. No tax money involved. The 
rent money pays the revolving loan money that was used 
to build housing for the Principal and the Superintendent,

Q. And about when was that constructed! A. Approxi­
mately four or five years ago.

Cross Examination by Mr. Walker:

Q. A question—that’s for the white Principal and the 
white Superintendent! A. Eight.

Q. You haven’t done the same thing for the Negro 
Principal! A. We adjusted his salary to take care of his 
rent.

Q. His salary is still less than the white Principal’s and 
the white Superintendent’s! A. Correct.

Mr. Light: Nothing further, Your Honor, and the 
defendants again rest.

The Court: All right. Anything further!
Mr. Walker: No, Your Honor, other than I would 

like to move the Court—
—158—

The Court: Just a moment before you do that. I 
would like to ask Mr. Sage one or two questions.

W. C. Sheppard, Jr.—for Defendants—Rebuttal—Cross
T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—By the Court

W hereupon, T. E aymond Sage, resumed the witness 
stand for questions by the Court:

By the Court:

Q. Mr. Sage, did you say this morning that your Plan 
that’s filed with the—I don’t know what the office is, they



137

T. Raymond Sage—for Plaintiffs—By the Court

call it the HEW in Washington—contemplates that you 
will have freedom of choice in all the grades this next 
September? A. Yes, sir, in all twelve grades.

Q. Do you think that the situation you had this year 
might reoccur? A. We have no way of knowing. Of 
course, we are hoping that it won’t because we are im­
proving the facility as much as we can at the Field School. 
One of the reasons given for wanting to transfer was the 
lack of a lunch-room. They won’t have that. They will have 
a lunch-room before this year is out.

Q. You are not planning on enlarging the facilities-— 
that is the classroom facilities at either school this year? 
A. That’s right.

—159—
Q. What about this increased number of pupils in the 

fifth, tenth and eleventh grades? Would that move up one 
grade? Will the same pupils continue to attend, if they 
do? A. If they do we will take care of them the best we 
can.

Q. Suppose that two hundred of them choose to come 
over there? A. There will be a lot of sitting up at night 
worrying. We will have to make some provision.

The Court: Thank you, Mr. Sage. Anything fur­
ther gentlemen? You have a Motion, Mr. Walker.

Mr. Walker: Yes, sir. Your Honor, in our prayer 
for relief, we pray the Court that the defendants be 
enjoined from expending any funds for operation 
or improvement of the predominantly white Gould 
public schools until and unless Field school is made 
substantially equal in facilities, equipment, et cetera, 
et cetera. I would like to have that request stricken, 
Your Honor, do you want me to read the full request?



138

Colloquy

The Court: Is it in the Complaint?
Mr. Walker: Yes, it is, it’s No. I ll, Paragraph 12.

—160—
The Court: Yes, I see it.
Mr. Walker: Well, we would like to have that 

request stricken, Your Honor, and substitute in 
lieu thereof the prayer to have any future high 
school facilities in the Gould School System con­
structed on or near the premises of the present 
Gould high school, which is now attended predomi­
nantly by white pupils, and we pray that the Court 
consider this as a part of our full prayer for relief.

The Court: Anything further?
That concludes the evidence and the proceedings 

in the case except, of course, for the Court’s deci­
sion and the possibility of briefs from counsel, 
which I will talk about with counsel shortly. These 
cases always involve a great many intangible fac­
tors and some problems that, on account of money, 
just cannot be solved overnight. The disparity in 
these school systems didn’t happen over-night. It 
came about over a period of years, and it will not 
be changed over-night. Of course, there was never 
any excuse or rational reason why the facilities of 
the schools attended predominantly by colored 
people should be inferior to that of whites. The

—1 6 1 -
point is—no one wants to wreck a School System— 
the point is how quickly, under the circumstances, 
with the money available—and, fortunately, there 
is money now available from the Federal Govern­
ment which wasn’t available before this year—how 
quickly can those situations be ameliorated. I know



139

Colloquy

that this is not a rich School District, agricultural 
as it is, without industry, and, frankly, I don’t see 
any prospects of much industry corning into the 
Gould School District within the next few years. 
The facilities used by the white children—that is 
predominantly white—would be considered inferior 
in most of the sections of this Country, and the 
facilities used predominantly by the colored or even 
worse. Those conditions for both the white and the 
colored do not reflect much credit on our Society. 
At any rate I ’ll take the case under advisement and 
render a decision as soon as I can. Court will be 
adjourned.

(Whereupon, the hearing closed)



Reporter’s Certificate

—162—
REPORTER’S CERTIFICATE

I, Ella West, hereby certify that on November 24, 1965, 
I was the official reporter for the United States District 
Court, Eastern District of Arkansas; that as such re­
porter, I attended the trial captioned Arthur E. Raney, 
et al., versus Gould School District Board of Education, 
on said date before The Honorable Gordon E. Young, 
Judge of said court; that the parties were present by 
their attorneys; that I took down in shorthand all pro­
ceedings had at said trial and reduced same to typewrit­
ing, and that the foregoing pages of typewritten matter 
constitute a full, true and correct transcription of the 
proceedings taken on November 24, 1965, in said above- 
captioned case.

W itness my hand this 1st day of April, 1967.

/ s /  E lla W est 
Court Reporter



MEILEN PRESS INC. —  N. Y. C .«g jiiS »  2 )9