State v. Maryland Institute

Bryan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. . This was a petition for the writ of mandamus. The Maryland Institute for the promotion of the mechanic aids is a body politic and corporate created by Acts of Assembly of Maryland. It was originally incorporated by the Act of X 849, chapter 114 ; and its charter was renewed by the Act of 1878, chapter 313.

The object of the incorporation was the encouragement and promotion of manufactures and the mechanic and useful arts by the establishment of schools of art and design, and by'other means adapted to that purpose. Robert H. Clark, Junior, a youth of African descent, claims the right to be admitted to these schools as a pupil; and by his father and next friend, he files a petition for a mandamus requiring the above-named corporation to admit him. The grounds of his demand are set forth in his petition. The Maryland Institute (as the corporation is popularly called) filed its answer; and on demurrer to the answer, the petition was dismissed and appeal was taken to this Court.

There can be no contest about the facts in this case; because in addition to those admitted by the demurrer to the answer, there is an agreement of counsel admitting such other facts as it was desired to lay before the Court. We proceed to consider the circumstances which, in our opinion, are important in the decision of the questions in the case. The municipality of Baltimore by an ordinance passed in March, 1893, authorized the Mayor, Comptroller and Register to contract with the Maryland Institute for the instruction of a number of pupils in its Schools of Art and Design for the period of eight years from the first day of • September next ensuing. By the second section of the ⁶⁵⁵ ordinance it was enacted that before the first day of September in. every year each member of the City Council should appoint one pupil who should be entitled to instruction for the period of four years in the Schools of Art and Design, and that in case of a vacancy occurring from any cause among the pupils the president of the Institute should forthwith give notice to the member of the Council representing the ward to which the pupil was credited, and that he should thereupon appoint another pupil to fill the vacancy.

The third section of the ordinance required the president of the Institute to report annually in the month of September to the Mayor and City Council the names of the pupils appointed and in attendance at its schools, together with a list of the vacancies, if there should be any. It also enacted that if no appointments should be made before the first day of October by the members of the City Council entitled to fill such vacancies, then the Mayor should appoint pupils to fill them. The fourth section of the ordinance enacted that the Mayor and City Comptroller and City Register should annually, or as much oftener as they might deem it expedient, inspect the said schools of the Institute, and “the condition and manner” in which it was fulfilling its contract with the municipality, and that thereupon the City Comptroller, if he was satisfied that the Institute was faithfully complying with the contract, should pay to its president annually in the month of September nine thousand dollars for the education of the pupils. The Maryland Institute on the tenth day of March, 1893, entered into a written contract with the Mayor, City Comp.troller and City Register for the reception of thirty-three pupils into its Schools of Art and Design for each of the eight successive years beginning on the first day of September, 1893, and following thereafter.

It appears that a youth of African descent was received into the Institute as a pupil in 1891; another'in 1892, and two others in 1895. So far as we are informed by the record, no other pupils of this description have ever been admitted into the schools of the ⁶⁵⁶ Institute. The effect of the admission of these four, pupils was very disastrous. There was an immovable and deep-settled objection on the part of the white pupils to an association of this kind.

Notwithstanding earnest and zealous efforts on the part of the board of managers and the faculty of teachers to reconcile the white pupils, their parents and guardians to the innovation, it caused a great decrease in the number of pupils ; and the bringing of this suit made it still greater. On the eleventh of November, 1895, the board of managers approved this resolution : “ Baltimore, November nth, 1895. “The following action of the Committee on Schools of Art and Design was reported by its chairman, Mr. John M. Carter, and on motion, it was unanimously adopted: “ Whereas, The popular sentiment of all the citizens of Maryland is opposed to mixed schools ; and “ Whereas, The appointment of colored pupils to this school, it is believed, has caused a large decrease in the number of white pupils attending the Institute, thus lessening its power for good to the community. “ Resolved, That hereafter only reputable white pupils will be admitted to the schools. “ Resolved, That the actuary be directed to issue a circular to the members of the newly-elected City Council and other appointing powers, informing them of this action.” The actuary of the Maryland Institute prepared a circular signed by its president and the chairman of the Committee on Schools of Art and Design, setting forth the action of the board and of the committee, and attached to it a blank letter of appointment of pupils for the following year (1896). This blank letter was in the following form : Baltimore, -, 189-. To the Board of Managers of the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts : I hereby appoint, subject to the rules of the Institute, -(residence-), to the scholarship in your Schools ⁶⁵⁷ of Art and Design, under the contract between the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and the Maryland Institute.

Member-Branch of the City Council -Ward-. A copy of this circular and of the blank letter of appointment was sent to each member of the City Council, and to the school boards of the city of Baltimore and the counties. In February, 1896, J. Marcus Cargill, a member of the City Council from the Eleventh Ward, appointed Clark, Junior (the appellant), to a scholarship in the Institute, writing the appointment on the printed blank, which had been sent to him with the circular just mentioned. The board refused to admit Clark as a pupil and requested Car-gill to appoint a reputable white person ; the refusal was of course because of his color.

Cargill made no other appointment, and the Maryland Institute certified to the Mayor of Baltimore that a vacancy existed among the pupils from the Eleventh Ward, and he in October, 1896, appointed a white pupil who has ever since been a member of the school. In February, 1897, the Mayor, Comptroller and Register made an inspection of the Maryland Institute, and made a very favorable report as to its condition and the manner in which it was fulfilling its contract in regard to the instruction of pupils sent there by the authority of the city. With full knowledge of the refusal of the Institute to admit any pupils except those who were white, the City Council in 1896 and 1897 directed the annual appropriation to be paid to the Institute according to the contract. And on the twentieth day of September, 1897/ the City Solicitor, in reply to an inquiry from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the City Council, gave his official opinion in writing that the Institute had not violated its contract by its refusal to admit a colored youth as a pupil in its schools.

In September, 1897, Cargill appointed Clark to the scholarship for that year, which he was entitled to fill by virtue of his position as a member of ⁶⁵⁸ the City Council; and the Institute again refused to admit Clark as a pupil. The Maryland Institute is essentially a private corporation. It was not created for political purposes, nor endowed with political powers. It is not an instrument of the government for the administration of public duties.

It has none of the faculties, functions or features of a public corporation as they are designated in the Regents' case, 9 Gill & Johnson, 365, and the many other cases which have followed that celebrated decision. The Act of 1878, which renewed its charter, granted it the annual sum of three thousand dollars, but this grant did not make it an instrumentality of government, nor make any change in its corporate character. The Regents' case, 9 Gill & Johnson, 398, shows that it could not have such an effect. The Maryland Institute holds its property in its own right, and has the power to manage its concerns according to its own discretion within the limitations of its charter.

It is, of course, bound faithfully and diligently to pursue the objects and . purposes of its incorporation; but it necessarily must have the choice of means which it may judge most appropriate to its ends. It was established for the benefit of white pupils, and has never admitted any other kind with the exception of the four instances already mentioned. When it found that the admission of these pupils had a very injurious effect on its interests, and seriously diminished its usefulness, it certainly had the right to refuse to continue such a disastrous departure from the scheme of administration on which it was organized. It would have been mere folly to persevere in the experiment under the existing circumstances.

We suppose that it could hardly be maintained that the constituted authorities of the corporation did not have the right to conduct its affairs according to the , plan and policy on which it was founded. We see no evidence of an intention to abandon this right when the contract was made with the municipality of. Baltimore. It certainly does not appear on the face of -the contract itself. ⁶⁵⁹ And there is nothing in the surrounding circumstances from which it can be inferred that either of the contracting parties contemplated or desired such an abandonment.

The city of Baltimore has showii in the most distinct manner that it knew that the Institute had the right to refuse colored pupils, and that this right was not impaired by the contract. The Mayor, City Comptroller and City Register, the officers appointed by the ordinance to inspect the schools of the Institute and ascertain the manner in which it was fulfilling the