Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large…

Purpose: This article examines factors that affect school board policy making about student diversity within two southern urban-suburban school districts experiencing changing demographics: Jefferson County Public Schools and the Wake County Public School System. Both districts have a history of voluntary integration efforts, and research shows…

School consolidation in rural districts has been ongoing since the 1800s. Although many district personnel tout economic inefficiency as a reason for consolidation to occur, micropolitics among school board members, parents, and the business community often drive the consolidation process. This article presents a qualitative case study of Webster…

Historically, the Supreme Court responds to the majority of cases brought before it with a decision or commentary that directs one or both of the parties on what to do--whether reparations by judgment, delivery of specific property, incarceration, or cessation of doing something. In May 1954, when the school segregation cases of "Brown"…

In this article, the author discusses racial and school segregation with the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, as well as the Brown vs. Board of Education case as an example. The Plessy case deals with Louisiana's separate car law, wherein a 30-year-old apprentice shoemaker named Homer Plessy, who was 1/8 Negro, was arrested for sitting in the Whites-only…

This reprint of an article originally appearing in "Crisis" in June/July 1955, examines the wording of the May 31, 1954, Supreme Court decision regarding equal educational rights for Blacks. (MC)

Summarizes and analyzes constitutional doctrine dealing with school desegregation and reviews whether the courts have kept school desegregation law clear and understandable. (Author/JM)

In the fall of 1953, the Supreme Court of the United States received the case of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" (347 U.S. 483, 1954) that raised essential questions, including whether separate but "equal" facilities in education can be provided for black students in the United States or whether the consideration of…