In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled that legally segregated public schools deprived African Americans of their 14th Amendment guarantee of an equal education. Today, after decades of controversy, school integration has not been achieved. Most black kids still go to mostly black schools. In some places, desegregation orders have been ignored — or even reversed — by school districts. In the meantime, America's racial make-up has radically changed. The Latino population has mushroomed. The proportion of white students is on the decline. Can students learn without diversity in their classrooms? Is school segregation a symptom of deeper issues: housing discrimination and economics?
School Desegregation: 60 Years Later
More
- Armor's 'Forced Justice: School Desegregation and the Law'
- Brown v. Board of Education
- Frankenberg on the politics of maintaining diversity policies in school districts
- Jelani Cobb on inequality and education in Newark and elsewhere
- Joseph's 'Neighborhood Rebels: Black Power at the Local Level'
- ProPublica's study on segregation today in the Tuscaloosa school district
- UNC Center for Civil Rights' analysis of the legacy of segregated communities
Credits
Guests:
- Joe Sexton - ProPublica - @thejoesexton
- Erica Frankenberg - Pennsylvania State University - @CPRatUCLA
- Peniel Joseph - historian and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, founder of the school’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy - @PenielJoseph
- David Armor - George Mason University
- Mark Dorosin - University of North Carolina - @MarkDorosin