"Lily White" Academy Can't Buy Municipal Property, Court Rules

    PressRelease ft ip (am 
March 9» 1? 
For Immediate Release 

“LILY WHITE" ACADEMY CAN'T BUY MUNICIPAL PROPERTY, COURT RULES 

New York, New York --- Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fund, Inc. (LDF) today announced that they have received an important decision from 

the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has rescinded the sale of an abandoned 

public school building by Brighton (Jefferson County) Alabama city officials to 

the private, all-white Hoover Academy. 

In its decision the court said "that the City of Brighton's determination 

to sell a public school building to an institution which the city knew would operate 

an all-white segregated school had the ultimate effect of placing a special burden 

on the black citizens of that community. Tie city in effect encouraged the 

maintenance of a segregated facility by its action." 

The ruling should have major impact on many cases where government officials 

have supported new private academies by disposing of public property, such as 

buildings, textbooks, buses, etc., to the operators of "private" schools. The Legal 

Defense Fund has such cases pending in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, among 

others. 

The building in question in this case was the Brighton Junior High School, 

which the city of Brighton purchased in 1966 from the Jefferson County Board of 

Education when that Board decided to abandon it as part of the county school system. 

The building remained vacant and, in 1969, three years after the city had purchased 

it, two black councilmen proposed that it be used to house certain welfare programs. 

This suggestion was stymied and tabled, but shortly thereafter, the council learned 

that the Hoover Academy -- described by the court as "'lily white’ from its natal 

day" -- was interested in leasing the building. 

The council then authorized the mayor to negotiate a lease with the Hoover 

Academy for two years with an option to buy or renew the lease at the end of the 

period. 

CONTINUED -- 



"LILY WHITE" ACADEMY Page 2 

After suit was filed by the plaintiffs and the district court indicated 

it would enjoin the city from leasing the premises, the city negotiated an 

outright sale of the property to the Hoover Academy for $12,500. 

While the district court held that it had no authorization to enjoin the 

city from selling the property, nor to rescind the sale; the U.S. Court of Appeals 

for the Fifth Circuit reversed this decision, finding violations of the Equal 

Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against black residents of Brighton. 

-30- 

For further information: Attorney Norman Chachkin - X 721) 

) 212-586-8397 or 

Sandy O'Gorman (Pub. Info.) X 834)