The Strange Career of Birdie Mae Davis: a History of a School
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THE STRANGE CAREER OF BIRDIE MAE DAVIS: A HISTORY OF A SCHOOL DESEGREGATION LAWSUIT IN MOBILE, ALABAMA, 1963 - 1997 Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this thesis is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This thesis does not include propriety or classified information _____________________________ Brian Andrew Duke Certificate of Approval: _______________________ ________________________ David Carter Jennifer Brooks, Chair Associate Professor Associate Professor History History _______________________ ________________________ Larry Gerber George T. Flowers Professor Emeritus Dean History Graduate School THE STRANGE CAREER OF BIRDIE MAE DAVIS: A HISTORY OF A SCHOOL DESEGREGATION LAWSUIT IN MOBILE, ALABAMA, 1963 - 1997 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts Auburn, Alabama May 9, 2009 THE STRANGE CAREER OF BIRDIE MAE DAVIS: A HISTORY OF A SCHOOL DESEGREGATION LAWSUIT IN MOBILE, ALABAMA, 1963 - 1997 Brian Andrew Duke Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this thesis at its discretion, upon request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. ____________________________ Signature of Author ____________________________ Date of Graduation iii VITA Brian Andrew Duke, son of Andrew and Lynne (Rhodes) Duke was born 12 August 1983. From 1990 – 2002, he attended Mobile County Public Schools and graduated from Murphy High School in 2002. He attended Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in May 2006. He entered Graduate School, Auburn University, in August 2006. iv THESIS ABSTRACT THE STRANGE CAREER OF BIRDIE MAE DAVIS: A HISTORY OF A SCHOOL DESEGREGATION LAWSUIT IN MOBILE, ALABAMA, 1963 - 1997 Brian A. Duke Master of Arts, May 9, 2009 (B.A., Spring Hill College, 2006) 210 Typed Pages Directed by Jennifer Brooks The Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown ruling helped transform America as it responded to the process of school desegregation. However, school desegregation remained a complex endeavor, based on changes in the law, Supreme Court rulings and public opinion. This thesis provides an in-depth study of one district, the Mobile County Public Schools System in Alabama, and one desegregation suit, the Birdie Mae Davis case to understand how a school board complied with desegregation mandates and resolved a desegregation case. The goal is to understand what desegregation meant to a community, how that community shaped desegregation, and what larger conclusions about race relations in the United States can be drawn from such a study. Filed in 1963, the Birdie Mae Davis case remained active until its dismissal in 1997. This thesis relies heavily on newspapers and the court records of the case, along with interviews conducted v by the author. Based on this research, I conclude that little support existed desegregation plans requiring mandatory student reassignment, such as busing students for the sole purpose of racial balance. Instead, both white and black parents preferred neighborhood schools, though from different motivations and for different reasons. In particular, the development of magnet schools allowed for voluntary desegregation after decades of forced desegregation failed to eliminate one-race schools. However, successful compliance with federal school desegregation orders did not mean that all members of the community view desegregation as a success. While school desegregation may have ended de jure segregation, the prevalence of housing, or de facto segregation perpetuated racial isolation in schools. While the Brown decision, successive rulings of the Supreme Court, the Civil Rights Movement, and federal legislation have made a tremendous impact in improving access to institutions for African American citizens, evidence demonstrates that educational achievement gaps remain between blacks and whites. Moreover, the black and white communities continued to disagree on several issues demonstrating the complexities of southern race relations in the late twentieth century. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Dr. Jennifer Brooks for directing this thesis with her guidance, patience, questioning, and encouragement. Also, I am appreciative of Dr. David Carter and Dr. Larry Gerber for their input, assistance, and advice with this project. I am grateful for the faculty and graduate students at Auburn University who have provided me with a tremendous amount of support. A few people and organizations deserve note for their help in this project. Jeff Reinert at the Federal District Court in Mobile was beyond accommodating in allowing me to study the Birdie Mae Davis legal files at the federal courthouse. The Mobile Public Library Local History and Genealogy Library and its staff deserve praise for their assistance. Sharon Abrams provided invaluable aid with school board records. The University of South Alabama Archives, Samford University Archives, and the Mobile Municipal Archives also provided important sources of research. I would also like to thank Mr. James Blacksher, Mr. Robert Campbell, Mrs. Hazel Fournier, Judge W. Brevard Hand, Mr. Paul Sousa, and Dr. Carolyn Lee Taylor for allowing me to interview them and the insight I gained through these conversations. Also I would like to acknowledge everyone in Mobile who has shared his or her perspective about the Birdie Mae Davis case. And finally, thank you to my friends and family who have encouraged, supported, and sustained me throughout this project. vii Style manual used: Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Theses and Dissertations, Sixth Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Computer software used: Microsoft Word, 2007. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES………………………………………...….…………………………...X INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE: SCHOOL DESEGREGATION UNTIL 1981 ......................................15 CHAPTER TWO: COMMUNITY COMMITTEES 1982 – 1983 ....................................46 CHAPTER THREE: SCHOOL DESEGREGATION LITIGATION 1983 – 1988 ..........67 CHAPTER FOUR: THE MOBILE PLAN ......................................................................100 CHAPTER FIVE: SCHOOL DESEGREGATION 1989 –1997 .....................................122 CONCLUSION: A GRAY HISTORY ............................................................................147 MAP OF MOBILE COUNTY .........................................................................................155 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................156 APPENDIX ONE: TIMELINE OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN MOBILE .........173 APPENDIX TWO: SCHOOL SYSTEM SUPERINTENDENTS ..................................175 APPENDIX THREE: SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS ....................................................176 APPENDIX FOUR: TABLES OF THE RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF MOBILE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS…………..……………………………………177 ix LIST OF TABLES 1. RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF SCHOOLS 1972…………..……………...….……177 2. RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF SCHOOLS 1976…………….....…………..……...180 3. RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF SCHOOLS 1980………..………...…………….....183 4. RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF SCHOOLS 1984……………………………...…...186 5. RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF SCHOOLS 1988………………………………..…189 6. RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF SCHOOLS 1992……………………..…………....192 7. RACIAL COMPOSITIONS OF SCHOOLS 1996…………………………………..196 x No single tradition in public education is more deeply rooted than local control over the operation of schools . Local autonomy has long been thought essential to both the maintenance of community concerns and support for public schools and the quality of the education process. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger Majority opinion in Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 25 July 1974 Desegregation is not and was never expected to be an easy task . Today’s holding, I fear, is more a reflection of a perceived public mood that we have gone far enough in enforcing the Constitution’s guarantee of equal justice than it is the product of neutral principles of law. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Dissenting opinion in Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 25 July 1974 xi INTRODUCTION Thirty-four years to the day after the filing of the Birdie Mae Davis school desegregation case, federal District Judge William Brevard Hand dismissed the lawsuit. He declared that the Mobile County Public School System had achieved unitary status.1 The Birdie Mae Davis case began in 1963 when a group of black parents filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of their children, claiming that the operation of a dual school system by County Board of School Commissioners violated the Constitution’s fourteenth amendment. Named for the first plaintiff listed in the court records, the case brought school desegregation to Mobile County, Alabama. In his order ending the case on 27 March 1997, Hand ruled that “the dismissal of this action under the terms specified is not only fair, adequate and reasonable, but in the very best interest of the plaintiff’s class as a whole.”2 On 9 April 1997 the school board voted to accept the agreement. While the three white school commissioners, Jeanne Andrews, Charles Jordan, and John Holland 1 Birdie Mae Davis v. Board of Commissioners, Mobile County, #3003-63-H, legal files, United States District Court Southern District