1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

Notes: Education, Chapter 6—Continued
120. By way of analogy to the tuition grant systems, it is interesting to
note that in the Enoch Pratt case not only did the library receive
direct financial aid from the city, but its employees were on the city
pay scale, and belonged to the municipal retirement system.
Additionally the city controlled the library's budget and owned the
library plant valued at over $4 million.
121. In another case decided in 1958 by the Court of Appeals for the
4th Circuit in Eaton v. Board of Managers of the James Walker
Memorial Hospital, 164 F. Supp. 191 (1958), aff'd, 261 F. ad 521
(4th Cir. 1958), cert, denied, 359 U.S. 984 (1959), the question
was whether the plaintiffs, three Negro doctors, were denied equal
protection by the defendant hospital by exclusion from staff
privileges because of their race. The issue, in substance, was
whether or not the hospital was an instrumentality of the State.
It had been established in 1881 and supported and operated until
1901 by municipal authorities. The court had no hesitation in
describing it as a State agency up to that date. In 1901, however,
a private corporation was organized. The city and county of
Wilmington, N.C., conveyed the land on which the old hospital
stood to the new corporation. The latter erected a new building
on the site with contributions from private donors. For 50 years
thereafter the hospital received financial support from local appropriations
in unspecified amounts with the approval of the State
legislature. In 1951 the Supreme Court of North Carolina found
such financing unconstitutional on the ground that the support of
a hospital was not a necessary government expense. The local
governments then entered into contract with the hospital for
the care of indigent patients. The total payments received
under the contract in 1957 when the suit was brought were
about 5 percent of the hospital's gross income. The Federal district
court dismissed the suit on the ground that the discrimination,
if any, was by a private institution so that no I4th amendment
question was involved. The court of appeals affirmed, finding
insufficient financial support by local governments to constitute
"State action." The only links between the State and the hospital
were the payments under contract for the care of indigent
patients and a right of reverter in one-half of the hospital's land
if it ceased being used for hospital purposes.
As to the period 190 i-i 951 the Court of Appeals said :
216
In 1901 . . . a new building was erected on the site with funds
provided by the benefactor. It would seem from the evidence
that the hospital then ceased to be a public agency, although in
the subsequent years until 1951 it received certain financial