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Monroe v. Board of Commissioners of the City of Jackson

Supreme Court of the United States · 1968 · Constitutional Law

Constitutional LawSchool DesegregationEqual ProtectionFourteenth Amendmentschool desegregationunitary systemdual systemfree transfer

Facts

Jackson, Tennessee had operated a state-imposed dual school system with separate white and Negro schools, faculties, and staffs. After litigation, the District Court approved a desegregation plan that assigned students by geographic attendance zones but allowed any student, after registering in the assigned school, to transfer freely to another school if space was available. In practice, after three years, Merry Junior High remained completely Negro, white students assigned there all transferred out, and the formerly Negro elementary schools also remained all Negro. The Board had also previously administered the plan discriminatorily by denying Negro transfer requests while allowing white transfers from Negro schools to white schools.

Issue

Whether a school desegregation plan that uses geographic attendance zones but permits free transfers at all grade levels satisfies the school board's constitutional duty to dismantle a state-imposed dual school system. More specifically, the question was whether the free-transfer feature made the plan inadequate because it perpetuated racial segregation rather than converting the system to a unitary one.

Rule

A school board has an affirmative duty to take whatever steps are necessary to convert a state-imposed dual school system into a unitary, nonracial, nondiscriminatory system. A free-transfer provision may not stand if racial segregation is its inevitable consequence; like freedom of choice, it is unacceptable unless it can be shown to further rather than delay prompt conversion to a unitary system.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

A public school district in Mobile, Alabama formerly operated separate schools by race under state law. It later adopted geographic attendance zones for middle schools, but any student may transfer to any other middle school with available seats after first registering at the assigned school. After two years, nearly every white student assigned to a formerly Black middle school has transferred out, and that school remains almost entirely Black.

Is the transfer feature most likely constitutional?

Explanation. A school board with a prior state-imposed dual system has an affirmative duty to take whatever steps are necessary to convert promptly to a unitary, nonracial system. A free-transfer provision may not stand where racial segregation is its inevitable consequence. Here, actual results show the transfer option allows students to recreate the former racial pattern, so it delays rather than furthers dismantling of the dual system.