Joyce Marie Moore vs Tangipahoa Parish School Board - Chronology

I. Alden Foster is Passed Over - Patricia Morris, President of the Greater Tangipahoa Chapter of the NAACP presented the Tangipahoa Parish School Board with a laundry list of discriminatory problems citizens of the community brought to her attention. Ms. Morris pleaded with the School Board to come to the table to discuss what was being presented to them. The School Board would not allow such a meeting and dismissed Ms. Morris' requests as politically motivated and untrue.

With no other means to an end, Ms. Morris had to go to lawyers to gain resolve. The lawyers told her she would have to reopen the deseg case but she needed valid, undisputable proof of prejudicial practices. The Alden Foster case was such evidence.

A qualified black teacher/coach was passed over as the first black HEAD football coach since integration (1969). In order to reopen the Joyce Moore vs Tangipahoa Parish School Board (1965) desegregation case which was won in 1979, a test case (something to prove the School Board was utlizing discriminatory practices) was needed.

PROOF - Motion for Status Conference - APR 11, 2007
Here in this document, Attorney Nelson D. Taylor, Sr., lead attorney for the Plaintiffs, filed a motion to have the desegregation case reopened.

PROOF - Judge's ORDER to hold Status Conference - APR 25, 2007
Judge Lemelle signs an order to hold the status conference. A status conference is like a hearing where both parties set out to prove there should or should not be a reason to reopen a dormant case.

II. Tangipahoa Parish School Board Enrolls Counsel - APR 26, 2007
The School Board hired Chris Moody as their first attorney for the deseg case.

PROOF - Motion to Enroll Counsel of Record

III. Response to Motion for Status Conference - MAY 3, 2007
The Tangipahoa Parish School Board denied allegations set in the Motion for Status Conference (see above). Some of the allegations included:

Building of schools and improvements to existing schools in a manner that perpetuates racial segregation.
Utilizing financing methodology that promotes a dual school system based on race and color and further promotes inequitable school facilities and curriclums based on race and color.
Racially discriminatory assignments of students
Deliberate failure to maintain racially desegregated schools
Racially discriminatory hiring and promotion practices
Virtually excluding black teachers from white classrooms
Virtually excluding black principals in predominatly white schools

The School Board's attorney Chris Moody responded by basically saying Ms. Pat Morris was a liar and everything stated in the initial motion was all lies.

PROOF - Response to Motion

IV. Order for Status Conference - MAY 3, 2007
Judge Ivan Lemelle after reviewing the motions filed by the Plaintiffs and The School Board decided there was enough evidence present to grant a Status Conference.

PROOF - Order for Status Conference

continue to Part II of the Deseg Case >>>