Jessica Hennen

Multicultural Georgia

Michael Gagnon

November 14, 2005

An Introduction to Desegregation and how Re-segregation

is a rising problem in Atlanta today.

Last year, I made a New Year’s resolution to lose ten pounds. I got a gym membership in January and started dieting. I was really pushing myself to stick with my goal of losing ten pounds. By March, my exercise regime decreased and I was eating cookies and ice cream, so obviously my plans on losing weight fell through. The process of desegregation is similar to this story. Many people write out a New Year’s resolution, but the majority of the population does not successfully fulfill their goal. Desegregation was passed by the Supreme Court in 1954 to regulate integration among America’s schools. After the passing of this law, schools slowly but surely integrated black students into white schools, and before long, the school systems were successfully integrated. However, schools today are slowly regressing towards increased segregation.

This paper will discuss the history of desegregation and the process of re-segregation today.

Racial segregation in public schools across America was normal in the 1950’s. There were many people who fought for desegregation, but it wasn’t until 1954 with the case of Brown versus Board of Education that enforced desegregation in schools across America. The story took place in Topeka, Kansas in 1953. Linda Brown was a black seven year old girl who had to leave her house at 7:40 am and walk through a railroad switchyard to board a bus that drove her to her black school.[1] The school Linda attended opened at 9:00 am, so she had to leave an hour and a half early to get to school on time even though a white school was just a few blocks away from her house.

Oliver Brown was Linda’s father. He attempted to try and enroll Linda to the white elementary school but was denied. He was then approached by members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) requesting him to participate as a plaintiff for the case. He hesitated at first, but eventually agreed.[2] What he didn’t realize was that the story of his daughter became one of the most significant cases in American history. On May 17, 1954, three years from when the case was first heard, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the decision of the unanimous court, siding with the plaintiff and requiring desegregation of schools across America.[3]

Although the case of Brown v. Board of Education was successful, it was limited strictly to public schools. It did not abolish segregation in other public facilities, nor did it require a specific time of enforcing desegregation in the schools; however it did rule mandatory segregation as being unconstitutional.[4]

With the laws of desegregation intact, Atlanta began its process. In 1961, ten Negro teenagers were the first to break the segregation barrier and attend white high schools in Georgia. This process of integration in Atlanta was a double significance. One, that Georgia was considered a “hard-core southern state with the strongest of segregationist traditions, to the list of states attempting some measure of public school desegregation in compliance with the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision”.[5]

The second significance was the demonstration of whether or not local officials and civic leaders can “avert the violence and disorder” that has taken place in other southern cities that began integration in their schools.[6] Despite the anticipation, many people believed that the breach of race in Georgia’s white schools would be peaceful.[7]

This was only the beginning. Not all schools in Georgia were complying with the ruling of desegregation. It is not until 1969 that Atlanta realizes that desegregation “Is the Law”.[8] An ultimatum was given to the State Board of Education by Attorney General Jerris Leonard to regulate desegregation or face court action. They knew that the laws of desegregation would be complied with eventually, so they agreed to integrate. However, 23 once integrated schools became re-segregated due to fleeing of white people into different areas, also known as “white flight”. This left the local school systems for the Negroes.[9] People in Atlanta understood what a court order meant. So instead of integrating the schools, they started building private schools.[10] This started the movement towards re-segregation.

In the 1974 case of Milliken versus Bradley, the court overturned the plan to desegregate Detroit schools by transferring students between the overpopulated black inner city districts and the large white suburban districts. Due to white flight, 72 percent of the public schools were black students.[11] The decision ruled out any inter-district transfers, therefore ignoring the trend of white flight.[12] By 1986, the rate of black students populating schools increased to 89 percent.[13] Eventually, many school districts ended court ordered desegregation, resulting in the rise of re-segregation.[14]

It wasn’t until 1968 in the ruling of Green v. New Kent County School Board that “true” integration was enforced. But, the Supreme Court put the burden of desegregation on the local school board members and left it up to them in developing a plan on how they were going to go about the process of desegregation in all areas of the school system. This included student and faculty assignment, transportation and extracurricular activities.[15] Approximately 500 schools were under court ordered desegregation policies at this time.[16]

Nearly thirty five years after Brown v. Board of Education, there was a request by many school board officials in ridding the laws of court ordered desegregation.

Board of Education v. Dowell, Freeman v. Pitts and Missouri v. Jenkins were three cases that represented the beginning of the end in court ordered desegregation. In 1972, the case of Dowell v. Board of Education took place in Oklahoma City. The school board sought to get rid of the court ordered desegregation law only five years after it had been set. They found that the school had achieved unitary status, therefore no longer needing a court order.[17] The Student Reassignment Plan (SRP) was then adopted, which brought an end to busing and allowed neighborhood reassignment in grades kindergarten through fourth. Busing was still used by students in higher grade levels.[18]

The parents of the black students were against the SRP because they thought it would create re-segregation in their school systems. The Tenth Circuit was in their favor and upheld the original desegregation laws mandated in 1954,[19] but the Supreme Court overruled the Tenth Circuit’s decision. In the end, it was concluded that despite indications that the SRP would lead to re-segregation, without any evidence, it would be disregarded.

The case of Dowell represented one of many current trends toward re-segregation. The Civil Rights Project (CRP) notes that the issue of re-segregation today is happening because of the Supreme Court’s decision in this case.[20] With court ordered desegregation no longer in law, the school board has no further obligation in maintaining desegregated schools.

In the case of Freeman v. Pitts, the Supreme Court again stated that a school district that had achieved a unitary desegregation plan no longer needed the district court to maintain control over the school system. However, if there was a certain aspect in the school system that wasn’t desegregated, only what was achieved was clear of the ruling.[21]

In 1969, Dekalb County schools were ordered to desegregate. By 1986, the school district stated that unitary status was achieved and asked to be released from the court order of continuous desegregation. The district court found that Dekalb County only achieved unitarium in certain areas, and not in others. As a result, the district court granted partial desegregation laws to be intact for those areas that did not meet the requirements.[22]

In the case of Missouri v. Jenkins, the school board was the one that filed suit against the state, accusing the state causing a perpetuated system of racial segregation in Kansas City schools.[23] There is a common ground in all the previous cases explained in that they all asked the courts to drop the desegregation ruling only after a few years, and because of this re-segregation is becoming a problem.[24]

Fifty years have passed since the ruling of desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education. Today a process of re-segregation is advancing across America, especially for blacks and Hispanics.[25] Researchers at Harvard found that the contact between whites and non-whites is decreasing every year. Also, patterns of segregation by race in highly linked to poverty.[26] Many people blame the problem of re-segregation to the previous decisions made on freeing school districts from court ordered desegregation,[27] and the growth of re-segregation is greatly being ignored. Studies show a pattern that indicates re-segregation occurring every year. Until the early 1960’s, very few blacks attended schools that had majority whites. This changed over the years and by 1988, 43.8 percent of black students attended white schools.[28] Harvard researchers indicate that “virtually all school districts analyzed are showing lower levels of inter-racial exposure since 1986, suggesting a trend towards re-segregation”.[29] In 1985, blacks accounted for 94 percent of the public school enrollment in Atlanta as suppose to 65 percent in 1970.[30] In 1992, Dekalb County was released from court ordered requirements to desegregate all areas of the school even though they were not officially desegregated.[31] The question now remains, “Are segregated classrooms more acceptable when they are by choice rather than law?”[32]

There has been a growing demand between black and white parents regarding their neighborhood schools. Many have been noticing that fewer and fewer children experience integration in their classrooms. This creates a problem for today’s society in Atlanta because parents now question the sake of sending their child to a different school just to experience diversity. It seems as though the courts of today’s society is becoming less interested in maintaining integrated school systems. It was reported that the U.S. District Court released Fulton County schools from a 34 year desegregation decree.[33]

Harvard researchers noted that Clayton County was experiencing the most re-segregation nationwide. Statistics show that white students in Clayton County Schools only account for 17 percent of the 48,000 students, whereas 20 years ago whites made up nearly 66 percent of the student body.[34] Also, 37.9 percent of the population in Clayton County is white, a dramatic drop from 92 percent in the early 1980’s. Again, residential segregation is the reason that many believe cause re-segregation to take place in schools.[35]

Another reason that contributes to re-segregation today is the increasing number of private schools. Between the years of 1960 and 1999, the enrollment of private schools was increasing everywhere except for the south. In 2003, Atlanta’s white population was 33 percent, but only 7 percent of its public school was occupied by white students. This shows that parents are obviously choosing private education for their children.[36] A worried parent states, “If left up to the communities, we will migrate back to all-black and all-white schools. I think school integration has become a lost cause.”[37]

As schools in the south continue to re-segregate, poverty of the minorities is becoming more consolidated. Statistics show that a third of blacks and Hispanics live in poverty, with a small13 percent among whites. Study was performed to measure the effects of socioeconomic status on learning. A fourth grade academic assessment showed that low income children that attended higher income schools scored better on math than higher income children in high poverty schools. A different study performed by the University of California obtained similar results, but in high school. These results proved that attending a middle class school rather than a poverty school makes a difference.[38]

Schools that consist of poverty have proved to be the least able in providing their students with a decent education. Minority students in Georgia are far more likely to have fewer advanced classes and more inexperienced teachers. Statistics from a study performed by Georgia State University found that 32 percent of white elementary school teachers left predominately black schools in 2001 and that the race issue was the reason for leaving. This leaves vacancies to fill, more often with inexperienced teachers.[39]

As a result of inadequate education in low class areas, whites left the district for suburban school districts, leaving minorities to conquer the population. Also, middle class parents purchased homes near good schools with experienced teachers who could deliver a good education. Low income families were unable to afford these types of homes; therefore their children were the innocent victims in receiving poor education.[40]Many white parents also believed that black children pulled down academic achievement and looked upon as intellectually inferior.⁴¹

Overall, the significance of Brown v. Board of Education is indeed dying. The regression towards re-segregation is happening more and more each year. The diminishing of desegregated school systems, in my opinion is because of the decree in removing the court ordered desegregated laws. Defendant school districts that commit to maintaining racial integration could have prevented re-segregation today. The increase in racial isolation in schools will eventually lead to criticizing Brown; everything Oliver and other black families went through just so their children could be equal to whites. There’s no need to re-write what to do about re-segregation, they just need to follow through with what was already written.

Many of the districts that experience changes between the exposure of blacks and whites are also having similar changes between the exposure of Hispanics and whites. The lowest levels of exposure between blacks and whites take place in districts with either no desegregation plan or where the courts rejected a city, suburban plan even though these districts achieved unitary integration and despite the increasing rate of racially integrated schools, white students isolated themselves from black and Hispanic students.[41]

Although further efforts should be made to encourage local school boards in maintaining desegregated schools, it is clear from the re-segregation cases that the project of desegregation is more successful when under court order.[42] School systems today should demonstrate that they are committed in keeping schools integrated instead of depriving students of having the opportunity to interact with others in an integrated environment.

End Notes

---

[1] James T. Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and it’s Troubled Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 32.

[2] Patterson, 34.

[3] Lisa Cozzens, “Brown v. Board of Education.”, African American History. Available from http:/fledge.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html; Internet; 25 May 1998.

[4] Cozzens

[5] Donald C. Bacon, “Atlanta vs. Violence: City Schools to Start Integration Wednesday, Test Advance Planning,” The Wall Street Journal, 24 August 1961, p.1.

[6] Bacon, 1.

[7] Bacon, 2.

[8] “Georgia Schools Face Court Test,” New York Times, 20 July 1969, p.43.

[9] “Georgia Schools Face Court Test,” p.43.

[10] “Georgia Schools Face Court Test,” p.43.

[11] Patterson, 178.

[12] Patterson, 179.

[13] Patterson, 181.

[14] Danielle R. Holley, “Is Brown Dying? Exploring the Resegregation Trend In Our Public Schools,” New York Law School, 29 April 2004, p.1087.

[15] Holley, 1090.

[16] Holley, 1090.

[17] Holley, 1091.

[18] Holley, 1091.

19 Holley, 1092.

[20] Holley 1092.

[21] Holley, 1093.

[22] Holley, 1094.

[23] Holley, 1095.

[24] Holley, 1096.

[25] Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, “Race in American Public Schools: Rapidly Resegregating School Districts,” The Civil Rights Project Harvard University, August 2002, p.2.

[26] Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, 3.

[27] Chester Finn, “Study finds Resegregation in U.S. Schools”, Vol. 36, no.6 (1999) [data base online] Academic Search Premier, p.1.

[28] Finn, 2.

[29] Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, 4.

[30] William E. Schmidt, “Some Whites Are Returning To Memphis Schools,” New York Times, 25 May 1985, p.6.

[31] Jon East, “Desegregation in Reverse” St. Petersburg Times, 29 September 2002, p.3.

[32] Maureen Downey, “Black Schools White Schools,” The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 22 June 2003, section E, p.1.

[33] Maureen Downey, 1.

[34] Maureen Downey, 2.

[35] Maureen Downey, 2.

[36] Maureen Downey, 2.

[37] Maureen Downey, 2.

[38] Maureen Downey, 4.

[39] “Our Opinion: Brown v. Board’s goal unrealized,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, 16 May 2004, p.6c.

[40] “Our Opinion: Brown v. Board’s goal unrealized,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, 16 May 2004, p.6c.

[41] Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, 4.

[42] Holley, 1106.