1. Race and Segregation in American Schools
EDTHP 115
Fall, 2002

2. What is Segregation? de jure (“by law”) segregation
Segregation mandated by law
Southern States
Outlawed by Brown decision (1954)
de facto (“in fact”) segregation
Segregation not mandated by law
Resulting from school assignment policies & residential patterns

3. Key Supreme Court Decisions on Segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Established doctrine of “separate but equal” (segregation is legal, as long as facilities are equal)
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
“doctrine of separate but equal has no place” in US schooling

4. Key Supreme Court Decisions on Segregation (cont.)
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968)
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)
Both decisions enforced Brown, ordered school districts to use a variety of methods to eliminate segregation

5. Key Supreme Court Decisions on Segregation (cont.)
Milliken v Bradley (1974)
Disallowed most inter-district desegregation efforts
Board of Education of Oklahoma City Public Schools v. Dowell (1991)
Freeman v Pitts (1992)
Both reduced desegregation requirements for districts

6. Desegregation and ‘White Flight’
Move to suburbs
Moves to private schools

7. Atlanta, Percent Black, 1970

8. Atlanta, Percent Black, 1980

9. Atlanta, Percent Black, 1990

10. Atlanta, Percent Black, 2000

11. Philadelphia, Percent Black, 2000

12. White Private School Enrollment Rates by Black School-Age Population, Southern Counties, 1970

13. White Private School Enrollment Rates by Black School-Age Population, Southern Counties, 1980

14. White Private School Enrollment Rates by Black School-Age Population, Southern Counties, 1990

15. Does Segregation Matter?