06/19/2024
BAXTER K. WILLIAMS vs THE STANLY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION by@Chip Taylor
In June 1969, Kingville School closed its doors to students for the last time.
The Stanly County School Board fulfilled its promise and reinstated all staff members for the 1969-70 school year, assigning them to Albemarle's East, Central, North, or West schools.
While most of the class was satisfied with their assignment, Principal Baxter K. Williams expressed his dissatisfaction with the closing of the school. He conveyed his disappointment to the board on April 28, 1969 – one month before the closing of Kingville School.
Williams had been given a contract which appointed him to a math and science teaching position at either Albemarle Senior High or Albemarle Junior High.
The contract also required him to do some assistant principal duties. Wiliams told the Board that he has never taught, that he die not feel competent to teach, and wished to be assigned a principalship within the system. He stated that the Board knew that his school would be closing and asked why the principalship at East Albemarle was not held open for him when it became available in 1968.
The Board replied that no position could be held open for anyone. Wiliams then told the Board that he would not sign his new contract and would seek legal advice. During this time two groups, the Albemarle Employment Coordinating Community Development Association and the North Carolina Teachers Association, joined Wiliams in his fight against the Board.
The AECCDA was an ad hoc group formed by Kingville residents and the NCTA was a statewide organization of Black teachers. On July 10, 1969, Wiliams along with the AECCDA and the NCTA, filed suit in the U.S> District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Attorney Chambers and his three plaintiffs planned to attack more than the Board's demotion of Baxter Williams, they were charging the Board with discrimination on the basis of race, and of arbitrarily closing an all Black school.
Williams obtained employment as a registrar at Barber Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina. He worked there for the 1969 - 70-school year and was paid $7,000 ($2000 less than his salary as Kingville School's Principal). During that year the Board met with William's attorney, LeVonne Chambers, to attempt to settle out of court. The Board again offered Williams a teaching/assistant principal position, which he and his lawyer again declined. Without a principalship to offer Williams, the Board decided on October 7, 1971 that they would make no more offers of settlement. The matter would be decided in court.
After a year at Barber Scotia College, where he took a position with the Pender County Schools as principal of Williard Primary School for the 1970 -71 school year. He was then promoted within the Pender County School System to principal of West Pender School. William and his family were living in Burgaw when his trial finally came to court.
Baxter K. Williams, et al. v. Albemarle City Board of Education was heard by Judge Edwin Stanley in September 1971 at the Stanly County Courthouse in Albemarle. Before a judgement was handed down, Judge Stanley died and the case was re-tried by Judge Eugene Gordon.
On March 7, 1973 Judge Eugene Gordon rendered his decision. Gordon rule Kingvile School was not racially motivated and not in violation of the fourteenth amendment.
The Court also found that no teachers had been unconstitutionally dismissed as a result of the closing of Kingville School. As for Baxter Williams, the Court ruled that even though the position offered to Williams by the Board would pay the same salary as his Kingville principalship, the position was nonetheless a demotion. Judge Gordon cited Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, which stated that "the real gist of demotion is a reduction in responsibility, not in salary." He stated that the defense had not proven that Wiliams' demotion was racially non- discriminatory. The Court concluded:
By demoting plaintiff Wiliams in the course
Of desegregation the Albemarle City School System
Without comparing his objective qualifications
To serve as principal with the objective qualifications of
Other principals in the school system, the defendant violated plaintiff Williams'
Rights to due process and equal protection of the laws accorded
Him by the United States Constitution.
The Court ordered the Board to offer Williams employment as a principal for the 1973-74 school year, and to pay Wiliams $6,767.36 for damages. They were also ordered ot pay court costs and attorney's fees.
The Board filed an appeal on April 2, 1973, and the Board lost again. The Fourth Circuit Court issued an order affirming the award of damages, with interest, and required the reinstatement of Williams as a principal, and awarded counsel fees to the prosecuting attorneys. Negotiations between Brown and Chambers led to an award of $12,000 in counsel fees.
On August 2, 1974 Superintendent H.T. Webb, J.r wrote Baxter Williams and offered him the position of principal of West Albemarle Elementary School. Williams replied within the week
that he had submitted his resignation to the Superintendent of the Pender County Schools and would accept the job offered at West Albemarle. The integration of the Albemarle City Schools was complete.
