50 Years Later, Schools Still Segregated

NewsMax ^ | 1/19/04 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

"Most schools in this country are overwhelmingly black or overwhelmingly white," Elise Boddie, head of the education department of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., told the Washington Post. "We have still not committed ourselves as a country to the mandate of Brown versus Board of Education. If these trends are not reversed, we could easily find ourselves back to 1954."

Boddie was reacting to a new study released by the Harvard Civil Rights Project that concludes that 50 years after the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of American education, schools are almost as segregated as they were when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

As reported by the Post, the study indicates that progress toward school desegregation peaked in the late 1980s as courts concluded that the goals of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education had largely been achieved.

However, over the past 15 years, the trend has been in the opposite direction – with the report noting that most white students now have "little contact" with minority students in many areas of the country.

"We are celebrating a victory over segregation at a time when schools across the nation are becoming increasingly segregated," noted the report, which was issued on the eve of the holiday celebrating King's birthday.

The Brown decision had its most dramatic impact in Southern states, where the percentage of blacks attending predominantly white schools increased from zero in 1954 to 43 percent in 1988.

However, according to the Harvard data, by 2001 the figure had fallen to 30 percent – about the same level as in 1969, the year after King's assassination.

Accentuated in recent years by the exodus of white middle-class families, the District of Columbia has long been one of the most segregated school districts in the nation.

The most segregated states for black students are New York and Illinois; the most integrated states are Wyoming and Ohio.

According to researchers, the resegregation trend picked up momentum as a result of a 1991 Supreme Court decision that authorized a return to neighborhood schools instead of busing – even if such a step would lead to segregation.

"There have been considerable gains in some areas, such as the number of [minority] students attending college," said John Jackson, education director for the NAACP. "But you still find many school districts across the country that are segregated and unequal. The implications are the same as in the fifties: Minority students in high-poverty areas are not getting a quality education."

[mhking]

Bull puckey. The Harvard group has "released" the same figures for months now. I appeared on Tavis Smiley's NPR radio show a year and a half ago to discuss the "newly released" figures.

The bottom line is that people go to school near their homes, period. Housing patterns are certainly far more segregated than many people might want to believe - especially in urban areas.

This is a result of people wanting to live in certain areas. In those areas, you will have far more schools with higher concentrations of black or Hispanic attendance, and in other areas, higher concentrations of predominantly white attendance. And yet other areas that have a mix that more or less represents the percentages of the racial makeup of America.

The bottom line, however, is that access is available equally.

The NAACP is doing nothing but pimping these statistics to justify their pathetic goal: vilification of mainstream America, and anyone who happens not to follow the remainder of the lemming-like masses who follow the Jackson-Sharpton cabal and the national "leadership" of the NAACP.

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[farmfriend]

And yet other areas that have a mix that more or less represents the percentages of the racial makeup of America.

My neighborhood.

[T Lady]

"...White students now have "little contact" with minority students in most areas across the country..."

Oh, brother. As Ronald Reagan once quipped, 'There you go, again.' Again the Liberals believe that minority children will learn more by sitting next to White children, through some form of osmosis.

...On the other hand, perhaps the lack of alternative opportunities (school choice, or vouchers) for Black parents to provide their children with a better education--something nearly every Democratic legislator vehemently opposes, along with their NEA buddies--may just have something to do with it. But of course, Liberals NEVER practice such discriminatory tactics- heavy sarcasm/on.

-Regards, T.

[Chu Gary]

Elise Boddie is completely delusional. The U.S. has spent several trillion bucks on trying to level the playing field for blacks - result, out of sight welfare rolls, out of sight illiteracy rates among blacks, out of sight teen pregnancies and illegitimate births among blacks, etc. Plus, the effects on the NEA have resulted in the general dumbing-down of the entire school age population.

IMHO, the above is one of the major drivers of the relocation of jobs to other countries. People in those countries have skills and want to work.

Many young people in the U.S. are within their skill set asking "do you want fries with that?"

[Clemenza]

The most segregated states for black students are New York and Illinois

I've lived most of my life in the former and two years in the latter and can honestly say that this sounds closest to the truth. When I was a kid on Lawn Guyland, you had schools that were largely black or largely, even lily white. I went to a PS that was 99% white (1% Asian) even though there were black people not a mile away. I still don't see how they get away with it.

Of course, if you confront anyone on Lawn Guyland about segregation they will say "isn't that in the south?"

[cyborg]

I'd be the first to say segregation? Ummm yeah LONG ISLAND... the libs and everyone else carved up LI pretty well with the racial steering and all that. It's more class now... the trashy havenots vs. the havesome vs. havemuch and the illegal aliens and schooltax robber NYC scofflaws.

[nmh]

Often blacks live in the city while white fled to the burbs. When blacks can afford to do so they typically flee there too. Black or white, who ever can afford it either homeschools or send their kids to private school. What's new about this?

[cyborg]

BTW, I went to Old Westbury School on Store Hill Road. There was ONE black kid in the whole school. Then there were the snotty arrogant Indian students but that's another story :-) Everyone was the same... The NAACP needs to go bye-bye and stop being troublemaking lib organization before they completely ruin their image.

[nmh]

"Blacks demand black studies, black fraternities, black only resident halls, black scholarships, black job placement programs, black academic societies, etc."

I want my daughter to have NO parts of such as racist agenda. We tend to view people of all races as human beings and then judge by their behavior. What's going on in their heart/mind comes out in their behavior.

[cyborg]

nothing new about that... I lived in Rochdale, Queens right before it went down into the gutter then we moved to the suburbs.

[okie01]

Given this "scientific" underpinning, it was perfectly natural to see bussing presented as a remedial tool.

Bussing was not a part of Brown vs Board of Education. Brown decided that "separate is not equal" and required equal access to the nearest school. The objective was to "stop segregation".

Subsequently, the judicial objective was altered to "achieve integration". Thence, bussing...

[Fledermaus]

Segregated by choice and the fact the Dems won't let the poor blacks out of the failing urban schools with choice and vouchers.

The Dems stood in the doorways of schools in the past to keep blacks out and now lock them in.

But the blacks still give the Dems 95% of their vote so I have no sympathy.

[Clemenza]

JA Dever in Valley Stream (Guidolandia), although I lived in Malverne. Most of the (white) kids who lived in Malverne were zoned for Valley Stream, while Malverne's schools were largely populated with black kids from Lakeview next door.

Old Westbury? I always figured you for a Sacred Heart chick. I would've gone to Chaminade had I stuck around for High School.

[Clemenza]

Then in places like Chicago and even DC, blacks are fleeing to the inner suburbs as the Gays/Yuppies sans children drive up the real estate in the city.

[cyborg]

Went to OW for the first year then graduated from Sacred Heart. My sister couldn't take SHA and graduated from Uniondale High with much honors. SHA was okay, but the Chaminade dances were BORING.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Oh, that's easy. Parents could from the poorer school schools can sue the school district, because Little Johnny is not able to attend the "nice" school in the richer neighborhood. Right?

[Clemenza]

Why not? Public schools are a form of socialism and all about "equality of opportunity," why not make good on that promise and allow anyone to attend any public school that they wish.

PRIVATIZE EDUCATION NOW! I'm sick of footing the bill for "chillrun" who are merely biding time before they get sent to the state license plate factory in Ossining or Attica.

[jscd3]

Bussing was not a part of Brown vs Board of Education

Never said that it was. Please re-read my post. What I said was that the objective was to end Jim Crow - you see, we agree. What I then said was that the means to achive this end was to site "scientific studies" that supposedly documented that black children could only achive their potential in the presence of white children. You can read the Supreme Court decision yourself if you doubt me. (By the way, it was Thomas Sowell who first pointed out the importance of this logic)

Given the reasoning behind the position, it's pretty clear that active integration, rather than simply stopping active segregation, would be the logical results of the decision. Hence bussing logically and inevitably followed.

I think that Brown vs BOE is a real good example of a common failure of liberalism: the failure to take into account the affects and consequences of the decisions that are being made. Consequently, no matter how bad or unjust a situation is, you can pretty much count on a liberal solution making it worse.

[ladylib]

Some city blacks also bring their problems to the suburban schools. Now there is the new problem of some suburban schools being two schools in one -- classes for well-to-do smart students (usually white) and classes for poor minority students who generally don't do as well.

The problems never end.

[William Terrell]

This is because power political divisive strategy has everybody at each other's throats.