Case: Bowditch vs. Buncombe County Board of Education

64-02196 | U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina

Filed Date: Jan. 23, 1964

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Case Summary

On January 23, 1964, parents of African-American children brought this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The plaintiffs sued the Buncombe County Board of Education to enjoin the operation of a racially segregated school system. In 1963, just prior to the filing of the lawsuit, there were still separate primary schools in the district. There was no black high school in Buncombe county, so students were bused to nearby Asheville (the largest city in th…

On January 23, 1964, parents of African-American children brought this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The plaintiffs sued the Buncombe County Board of Education to enjoin the operation of a racially segregated school system.

In 1963, just prior to the filing of the lawsuit, there were still separate primary schools in the district. There was no black high school in Buncombe county, so students were bused to nearby Asheville (the largest city in the county, which also operated a segregated school system) to an over-crowded black high school. By the spring of 1964, the Board had adopted a written desegregation plan that was published in the county newspapers; it provided for desegregation to be completed by the 1967-68 school year. The district court (Judge Wilson Warlick) concluded that while the Board should complete desegregation a year earlier, by 1966-67, its plan, based on freedom of choice, was largely acceptable. The plan assigned every first grade student to a neighborhood school; students in second through eighth grade could request a transfer within their attendance area. By 1966-67, the voluntary transfer system would be extended to all grades.

On appeal to the Fourth Circuit, the plaintiffs challenged the voluntary transfer program and its delayed application to the high school grades. The court agreed that the plan presented problems for high school students because the high school that black students were currently attending in Asheville was overcrowded. The court ordered the Board to transfer black high school students to all-white schools. Nonetheless, in all other respects, the court embraced the Board's freedom of choice plan, noting that:

Every other Negro now attending a segregated school has an unrestricted right to transfer to a school attended by white pupils. Every pupil moving from an elementary school to the high school level will be routinely assigned to one of the County's six high schools. This type of voluntary plan is adequate to accomplish a legal desegregation of the schools.
Bowditch v. Buncombe County Board of Education, 345 F.2d 329 (4th Cir. Apr. 7, 1965) (en banc).

Unfortunately, we have no meaningful record of this case from shortly after the Fourth Circuit's decision to the present. The paper docket ends in 1966, with the district court denying the North Carolina Teachers Association's motion to intervene and approving the Board's plan for faculty integration. Also, the Supreme Court cast doubt on the adequacy of freedom of choice desegregation plains in Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, which could undermine those aspects of the desegregation plan in this case that relied on freedom of choice.

We found a news article from 2014 that briefly mentioned Buncombe county's desegregation efforts:

[E]ven though a judge had never dismissed the local school district’s 1965 desegregation order, this year the lawyer for the Buncombe schools called the order essentially moot because of “the passage of time.”

In emails, the lawyer, Chris Campbell, told ProPublica the district had been ordered to eliminate a policy of sending its black students to a black high school operated in another district, which it had long ago done. “There has been no further court action and no plan to take further action by the school district since the issues were resolved nearly 50 years ago,” he wrote.

But it’s hard to know if the district has been fully compliant, as Campbell does not have a copy of the desegregation order and neither does the federal court or its archives. However, an entry on an archived copy of the case’s court docket makes it appear that the district was at the very least mandated to desegregate its teaching staff as well. Campbell declined to answer questions about how he knew what was required without a copy of the order or to specifically address the teaching staff issue.

See Nikole Hannah Jones, Hundreds of School Districts Have Been Ignoring School Desegregation Orders for Decades, Pacific Standard (May 2, 2014).

Available Opinions

Bowditch v. Buncombe County Board of Education, 345 F.2d 329 (4th Cir. Apr. 7, 1965) (en banc)

Summary Authors

Greg Margolis (2/27/2017)

Maddie McFee (11/21/2019)

People


Judge(s)

Bell, J. Spencer (Virginia)

Sobeloff, Simon E. (Maryland)

Attorney for Plaintiff

Chambers, J. LeVonne (New York)

Attorney for Defendant

Stoker, Lawrence C. (North Carolina)

Judge(s)

Bell, J. Spencer (Virginia)

Sobeloff, Simon E. (Maryland)

Attorney for Plaintiff
Attorney for Defendant

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Documents in the Clearinghouse

Document

64-02196

Docket

Bodwitch vs. Buncombe County Board of Education

July 12, 1966

July 12, 1966

Docket

09628

[Order]

Bowditch v. Buncombe County Board of Education

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

April 7, 1965

April 7, 1965

Order/Opinion

345 F.2d 345

Docket

Last updated March 24, 2024, 3:03 a.m.

Docket sheet not available via the Clearinghouse.

Case Details

State / Territory: North Carolina

Case Type(s):

School Desegregation

Key Dates

Filing Date: Jan. 23, 1964

Case Ongoing: Perhaps, but long-dormant

Plaintiffs

Plaintiff Description:

African-American minor school children in the Buncombe County schools by and through their parents.

Plaintiff Type(s):

Private Plaintiff

Public Interest Lawyer: No

Filed Pro Se: No

Class Action Sought: Yes

Class Action Outcome: Granted

Defendants

Buncombe County , School District

Defendant Type(s):

Elementary/Secondary School

Case Details

Causes of Action:

42 U.S.C. § 1983

Constitutional Clause(s):

Equal Protection

Available Documents:

Trial Court Docket

Injunctive (or Injunctive-like) Relief

Any published opinion

Outcome

Prevailing Party: Plaintiff

Nature of Relief:

Injunction / Injunctive-like Settlement

Source of Relief:

Settlement

Litigation

Form of Settlement:

Court Approved Settlement or Consent Decree

Order Duration: 1965 - None

Content of Injunction:

Busing

Student assignment

Discrimination Prohibition

Other requirements regarding hiring, promotion, retention

Reporting

Goals (e.g., for hiring, admissions)

Issues

General:

Buildings

Education

Funding

Racial segregation

School/University Facilities

School/University policies

Staff (number, training, qualifications, wages)

Transportation

Discrimination-area:

Disparate Impact

Disparate Treatment

Discrimination-basis:

Race discrimination

Race:

Black

Type of Facility:

Government-run