Use of public buildings

[sctmom]

It took me some time to verify my facts on this story. This goes along with the discussions about using public school buildings for meetings or recruiting.

 

The place: Georgia. The year: 1970. Integration is finally made a reality in the Georgia Public Schools statewide. Many white parents get together and open private schools. Some schools have 300 or 400 students the first year. In one small town, instead of building a new building, the parents purchase a elementary school building from the state. This building had not been used for a couple of years. Realize they "purchase" it, not "rent" it. The families spend Saturdays and evenings cleaning and making repairs. After a couple of years, the mortgage is paid off, the school building is debt free. It's not great, but it just the right size.

 

Another year or so, the United States Government decides the private school must vacate the building. Why? Because the school was built for public use and could NEVER, I mean NEVER, be used by a private organization.

 

True story, I lived it. I was in 6th grade the year we built the new building. And I do mean WE. My family was one of the ones down there every Saturday working, if you could walk, you could work.

 

I don't know how far up the court system it went, but the school lost. These weren't parents who gave up easily, so I feel pretty darn sure they fought it as far as the law allowed. We moved during spring break of that year. Luckily it was on the adjoining land the school had bought from a private individual. So the day before spring break, students pulled and pushed and carried desks, chairs, books, and everything else from one building to the next.

 

The local school district really didn't care if we owned the building or not. They had no use for it. For well over 15 years it sat empty, many times the victim of vandals, before finally being torn down. The state wasn't against the private schools. Much of the state legislature sent their kids to similiar schools. The school had an "official" non-discrimination statement. Everyone swore that no blacks had ever applied for entrance and if they could pay the money, they could attend. I don't even think we had an entrance exam.

 

So, if you think the local school district or the State has a right to do as they please, think about it some more. Public buildings are for public use FOREVER. And the public includes everyone.

 

That concludes your history lesson for the day.

 

 

 

[eisely]

An interesting story. There are many pieces of information left out, and that you probably don't know.

 

The federal government has for decades had a policy prohibiting state and local government grant recipients from selling property acquired or built wholly or partially with federal funds. As far as I know this is still federal policy. That may have been the legal leg on which the government acted. The purpose of the policy was to prevent local governments from acting in bad faith and reaping profits off of sales of real property that were paid for with federal money.

 

I encountered this several years ago when the idea of privatization of sewage treatment plants, built partially with EPA grant money, was under discussion. A logical policy would not prohibit such sales, but would rebate a proportionate share of the proceeds back to the feds.

[sctmom]

I went back and asked family member who remembered more than I. The whole case was that the building was built for public use and could not be used by a private school. The issue was never about was the sale of the property legal or not.

 

I may be wrong here, but I thought schools were build by the state. Would they have been receiving federal funds in the 1950's or 60's to build a building? I do not know.

 

[eisely]

I agree that federal funding for school construction in the 50s and 60s is unlikely. However these days the feds are involved in everything under the sun, and if a question of disposition of public property arises, one needs to ask if federal funds were ever involved and what that might mean.

[Bob Russell]

Another explanation may be based upon the saying we have in the legal profession: "Good facts make bad law." The situation you described is the "white flight" phenomena which had the effect of stalling integration. Often it was done improperly with local government blessing. As you said, the feds came in and objected. If the result was a court ruling against the school, it was probably reached in federal court, and improper local procedures may have been found. Or the court, offended by the apparent white flight, just put a stop to it. (Hence the bad law).

 

The reality today is that local government property is sold off, or even just leased, for private purposes. With school property, this is often done because the school-age population has gotten smaller in many communities, and the school districts need to unload surplus property. We have a situation like that here in Oregon right now. A smaller community has an unused elementary school that it has been trying to sell for some time. They have now received an offer., a lease with option to purchase, from a Portland Buddhist group, and they want to turn it in to a prayer and retreat center. I have not heard any legal objection to the sale to a religious group, but certain church groups in the community are up in arms about the Buddhists moving to this community. Some are claiming that the Buddhists are coming to steal away the youth of the community. Fortunately, many others in the religious community are supporting and welcoming the Buddhists. The press did however emphasize the opponents, with what I believe to be very intolerant quotes by them against the Buddhists. But the press has a way of showing a vocal minority, just to sell stories.

[Eman]

I know of 4 old schools that have been sold and are being used privately. One is in NC and it is a country store. The other 3 are in TN, one is a woodworking shop and the other 2 are farm supplys. The schools are usually built and paid for by the county and are the county's to do whatever they please after a new school is built.

[sctmom]

Probably those private businesses do not discriminate based on race.

I've emailed my father for further clarification of the case.

 

[sctmom]

My father said the building had been bought from the local county officials because they were no longer using the school. It is a very rural county, and the elementary schools were consolidated and placed in the geographical center of the county.

The Federal District Court ruled that the sale was illegal because it was sold for the purpose of promoting a segragated school. In Georgia anyone can challenge any property sale within 7 years.

The county officials didn't send their kids to the private school but probably just didn't care. On the other hand, the governor of Georgia in 1970 was busy making speeches at open houses at new white-only private schools.

 

Also, just to clarify, understand this was NOT a church based school, just a group of people who didn't like integration and opened their own school. As children, we knew the real reason for the school but we were also told our education would be "better" and we would be "safer". For some private schools this was true, for others the eduacation wasn't better and they eventually folded. Church based schools have a different reason for being in existence.