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Mississippi School District Ordered to Desegregate Its Schools Mississippi School District Ordered to Desegregate Its Schools
(about 4 hours later)
A federal court has ordered a town in Mississippi to desegregate its high schools and middle schools, ending a five-decade-long legal battle over integrating black and white students.A federal court has ordered a town in Mississippi to desegregate its high schools and middle schools, ending a five-decade-long legal battle over integrating black and white students.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ordered the Cleveland School District to consolidate the schools after rejecting two alternatives proposed by the school district, saying they were unconstitutional. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi told the Cleveland School District to consolidate the schools after rejecting two alternatives proposed by the district, saying they were unconstitutional.
“This victory creates new opportunities for the children of Cleveland to learn, play and thrive together,” said Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a statement published on Monday. “This victory creates new opportunities for the children of Cleveland to learn, play and thrive together,” Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement published on Monday.
The court’s ruling means the district’s middle school and high school programs will be combined for the first time in their more than century-long history.The court’s ruling means the district’s middle school and high school programs will be combined for the first time in their more than century-long history.
The decision comes six decades after the United States Supreme Court declared in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate but equal has no place” in public schools. The decision comes six decades after the United States Supreme Court declared in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate but equal has no place” in public schools. Tuesday is the 62nd anniversary of the landmark decision.
The Justice Department on Monday said the district court found that the school district operated an “inadequate dual system” in Cleveland, a Mississippi Delta town in the western part of the state with a population of about 12,000. The Justice Department said the district court found that the school district had operated an “inadequate dual system” in Cleveland, a Mississippi Delta town in the western part of the state with a population of about 12,000.
“Although no court order can right these wrongs, it is the duty of the district to ensure that not one more student suffers under this burden,” the court said in its opinion.“Although no court order can right these wrongs, it is the duty of the district to ensure that not one more student suffers under this burden,” the court said in its opinion.
School officials could not immediately be reached for comment.School officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Justice Department’s plan, which was approved by the court, requires the district to consolidate the virtually all-black D.M. Smith Middle School with the historically white Margaret Green Junior High School.The Justice Department’s plan, which was approved by the court, requires the district to consolidate the virtually all-black D.M. Smith Middle School with the historically white Margaret Green Junior High School.
The school district must also consolidate the mostly black East Side High School with the historically white Cleveland High School, and review educational programs and identify new programs for the consolidation. The district must also consolidate the mostly black East Side High School with the historically white Cleveland High School, and review educational programs and identify new programs for the consolidation.
Testimony given in court by both white and black residents described a stigma associated with the black schools and a perception among families that white students received a better education. Testimony given in court by white and black residents described a stigma associated with the black schools and a perception among families that white students received a better education.
Segregation is not just a characteristic of the Southern states. Some of the most severely segregated conditions for Latino and African-American students occur in New York, Maryland and Illinois, the Civil Rights Project said in a report on Monday.
Sixty-five percent of New York’s black students attend schools that are overwhelmingly nonwhite, compared with 45 percent in Mississippi, the report shows.
Erica Frankenberg, an author of the report, said in a telephone interview that decades after the Brown decision, some districts have lagged in ending school segregation because ending the practice requires separate legal challenges to polices that are enforced and enacted at the local and state levels.
Some factors such as school board decisions, political opposition and discriminatory housing policies can hinder progress in districts, she said.
“It is asking the perpetrators of segregation to be in charge of fixing the segregation,” Ms. Frankenberg said. She added that she believed there were several hundred legal school desegregation cases nationwide.