JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION, VOL. 49

HOW TO SUFFER PREDJUICE AS AN HONORARY MINORITY MEMBER

Martin Schoppmeyer, Sr.

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

The most permanent memory of my first trip to the South was the sight of white and colored water fountains. The colored fountains came right from the pipe while the white was refrigerated. Separate, but unequal.

As years passed while being in the South, I became used to the rather ridiculous situation of segregation. It accounted for the fact that I could not eat with a fellow employee who was black. It also came home to me with a vengeance one night while I was in the Army returning from a pass on an empty Greyhound bus. I spotted the large seat in the rear and went to be on it and catch 40 winks. The driver stopped the bus and came to eject me with the warning that I was in the colored section. Except, that was not the word he used to describe it.

Segregation in its hey day was mostly an ego trip on the part of white citizens. They had someone they could be superior to. Blacks had to learn their place and never try to be uppity. The whole system was to warm the hearts of whites, who themselves were being exploited, by allowing them to bully a whole race.

Starting with Rosa Parks and led by Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights movement began to change all of segregation. No more of back of buses, lunch counter inequity and the whole gamut of sights of enforced second-rate status. These disappeared to be replaced by things like affirmative action. However, even though the overt signs of its presence disappeared, segregation in more subtle forms remained. It lives happily, but not overtly, to this day.

In 1992 a small black school district in the Arkansas Delta, called Lake View, brought suit against the state for equity on the state finance plan. Lake View was receiving far less money per pupil than the state average. The suit sat on the shelf for two years, and that is when I became involved with it. The attorneys for Lake View were also all black, and two of them were members of the state legislature. I was asked to help rephrase the complaint. I did so, and it would seem that it was at this point that I was first lumped in with the plaintiff lawyers.

In September 1994, the suit was heard in the Chancery Court in Pulaski County. I testified at length and was more of a part of the plaintiff team. Finally in November, the Judge rendered her opinion and declared the state school finance system to be unconstitutional. She then gave the state two years to develop a Constitutional system.

As of the start of 1995, the legislature was in session. It had created in early 1994 a study commission that was supposed to develop a new finance plan; its report was delivered. However, the Governor wanted nothing to do with it and claimed to having developed his own plan. The problem was the details of the Governor's plan changed from week to week. An impasse set in. Finally in order to get some plan into law, the Speaker of the House announced that no appropriation bills would be considered until there was a school finance plan. Therefore, the legislature ran beyond its proposed ending date and a compromise was reached. Act 917 became law and a new finance plan indeed existed.

The Lake View plaintiffs immediately challenged the law. The case was to be heard at the end of 1996. However, in the meantime the trial judge ran and was elected to the state supreme court. This compressed her available court calendar. A group of intervenors to the case claimed that they had too many witnesses to be heard in a short period of time so the judge turned the case over to a new chancery justice.

That judge scheduled a hearing for April 1997. At this meeting, no evidence was heard but the case was scheduled to be heard in January 1998. The contesting parties were told to seek a settlement. Meetings were held between Lake View and the state throughout 1997. The lengthy delay in hearing the case seemed due to prejudice against Lake View attorneys more than any real reason. The state had paid its attorneys, witnesses and consultants. However, the winning Lake View side was paid nothing. I was regularly promised payment but the court would never allow it.

The reason seemed to be pure racism. Had the plaintiff's attorneys been white or from some prestigious Little Rock law firm, they would have received payment early on. But because they were black, their rights were cancelled. I suddenly found myself as an honorary black and I began to feel as minority members feel being discriminated against.

The situation became more obvious during 1998. A hearing was set for February 18. The settlement reached by the two parties was presented. The judge then gave until early March for comments. In March, the ACLU complained that they did not have enough time to prepare a statement. The time was then extended to April 1. On that date the Judge threw the plaintiff-defendant agreement out and accepted the ACLU position that there was now an entirely new finance system and the suit should be thrown out. However, at the same time, the Judge approved a 7 million dollar fee for the Lake View attorneys. This represented a lesser amount than the 10.25 million requested.

However, since April 1, the Judge has refused to sign the order actually releasing the funds. When asked about it he says that he should never have had to take over the case. The logic of such a position seems difficult to fathom, save that one excuse to be prejudicial is as good as another.

The final blow was delivered on August 17. On that date the judge dismissed the case and further stated that no legal fees would be paid to the plaintiff's lawyers. Since my fees were included therein, I too was declared out-of-luck.

Although even the President realizes that racism is alive and well, it takes a situation like this to bring the point home. This particular case is a good example. Blacks are not accorded the same professional treatment as whites. Therefore, accidentally, I have had to learn how it feels to be a victim of prejudice. Evidently my next move is to join the NAACP. I certainly qualify.

I wonder what the rate for honorary membership is.