Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, 413 U.S. 189 (1973)

Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado

No. 71-507

Argued October 12, 1972
Decided June 21, 1973
413 U.S. 189

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT

Syllabus

Petitioners sought desegregation of the Park Hill area schools in Denver and, upon securing an order of the District Court directing that relief, expanded their suit to secure desegregation of the remaining schools of the Denver school district, particularly those in the core city area. The District Court denied the further relief, holding that the deliberate racial segregation of the Park Hill schools did not prove a like segregation policy addressed specifically to the core city schools and requiring petitioners to prove de jure segregation for each area that they sought to have desegregated. That court nevertheless found that the segregated core city schools were educationally inferior to "white" schools elsewhere in the district and, relying on Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, ordered the respondents to provide substantially equal facilities for those schools. This latter relief was reversed by the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the Park Hill ruling and agreed that Park Hill segregation, even though deliberate, proved nothing regarding an overall policy of segregation.

Held:

1. The District Court, for purposes of defining a "segregated" core city school, erred in not placing Negroes and Hispanos in the same category, since both groups suffer the same educational inequities when compared with the treatment afforded Anglo students. Pp. 195-198.

2. The courts below did not apply the correct legal standard in dealing with petitioners’ contention that respondent School Board had the policy of deliberately segregating the core city schools. Pp. 198-213.

(a) Proof that the school authorities have pursued an intentional segregative policy in a substantial portion of the school district will support a finding by the trial court of the existence of a dual system, absent a showing that the district is divided into clearly unrelated units. Pp. 201-203.

(b) On remand, the District Court should decide initially whether respondent School Board’s deliberately segregative policy respecting the Park Hill schools constitutes the whole Denver school district a dual school system. Pp. 204-205.

(c) Where, as in this case, a policy of intentional segregation has been proved with respect to a significant portion of the school system, the burden is on the school authorities (regardless of claims that their "neighborhood school policy" was racially neutral) to prove that their actions as to other segregated schools in the system were not likewise motivated by a segregative intent. Pp. 207-213.

445 F.2d 990, modified and remanded.

BRENNAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which DOUGLAS, STEWART, MARSHALL, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined. DOUGLAS, J., filed a separate opinion, post, p. 214. BURGER, C.J., concurred in the result. POWELL, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, post, p. 217. REHNQUIST, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 254. WHITE, J., took no part in the decision of the case.