The South was the central focus of the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. The landmark ruling held that laws mandating segregation in the school systems of the eleven states of the Old Confederacy, along with D.C. and six other states, violated the U.S. Constitution. Intense opposition met the…

The fight for equal educational opportunity in New York has followed a pattern similar to other diverse or racially transforming states. From the 1950s to 1980s, the issue of school desegregation was an important issue. Local civil rights pressure, the courts, and legislation attempted to desegregate large urban school systems through both…

While segregation in public schools was found unconstitutional in the "Brown v. Board" of Education of Topeka Kansas case in 1954, many present day African American students still attend segregated schools. Within these "de facto" segregated schools, students meet challenges to educational achievement. In a sample of 160…

North Carolina has a storied history of school integration efforts spanning several decades. In response to the "Brown" decision, North Carolina's strategy of delayed integration was more subtle than the overt defiance of other Southern states. Numerous North Carolina school districts were early leaders in employing strategies to…

In 1954, "Brown v. Board of Education" struck down state laws that required schools to be segregated by race, which then existed in 17 southern states. Yet in 2016, many schools across the country are still segregated along largely racial and socioeconomic lines. There are many reasons schools aren't better integrated. School district…

Ambiguity remains as to whether contemporary levels of racial segregation in and outside of the U.S. South are a serious problem. This article subsequently examines the math and science test-scores of 3rd-graders that participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Test-score performances are estimated using multilevel statistical methods…

Sixty years have passed since the pivotal 1954 Supreme Court case of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" and almost fifty years have elapsed since the Higher Education Act of 1965. The Brown decision dismantled public segregated schools in many parts of the country, especially in the South, and racial access in schools…

This study analyzes the increase in school segregation in Delaware from a quantitative perspective. The article tests the hypothesis that the declaration of unitary status that released the Wilmington area school districts from their desegregation order caused the increase in segregation. The research reveals that the declaration of unitary status…

Though once a leader in school integration, Massachusetts has regressed over the last two decades as its students of color have experienced intensifying school segregation. This report investigates trends in school segregation in Massachusetts by examining concentration, exposure, and evenness measures by both race and class. First, the report…

This study examines the narratives of three African American teachers who participated in an early desegregation plan that transferred selected African American teachers into all-White schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While many of these teachers experienced rejection in their new schools, the three African American teachers in this…

A daughter of the lead plaintiff in the landmark ruling recalls the day of the announcement and offers thoughts on its meaning today. (EV)

This article explains the court decision on the "Brown v. Board of Education" lawsuit. In this case, there are findings that the Negro and white schools involved have been equalized, or are being equalized, with respect to buildings, curricula, qualifications and salaries of teachers, and other "tangible" factors. The Court…

As a senior in a segregated Virginia high school, John Stokes helped organize a student strike for better classroom conditions. The retired school principal describes how the events in Prince Edward County in 1951 went on to become part of the Brown v. Board case. (EV)

An account of the efforts to desegregate the school system in the city of Baltimore through August, 1974. (EH)

Supreme Court requirements that "specific intent" to discriminate must be shown should not apply to school segregation cases. The injury in school segregation cases is based on racial isolation itself and hurts only Blacks, unlike job discrimination cases like Washington v. Davis where Blacks are disproportionately, but not solely,…