Posted on 04/15/2002 9:02:59 AM PDT by Jean S
WASHINGTON --
The fight to continue one of the nation's longest-running school busing programs ended at the Supreme Court on Monday.
The court did not comment in turning away an appeal from black parents in Charlotte, N.C., who wanted to continue the desegregation program begun in 1969. The court also rejected a related lawsuit from white parents, who won a lower court order ending the busing program. They wanted the high court to order the school system to pay their lawyers' fees.
The 105,000-student Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system was the first major urban district in the nation to use busing to achieve racial balance. The court-ordered busing plan was the result of a 1965 lawsuit by black parents, who claimed the school district had not done enough to comply with the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision desegregating public schools.
The Supreme Court signed off on the Charlotte program in 1971, the first time it had authorized forced busing to desegregate what black parents called a dual system of poor schools for blacks and better schools for whites.
The busing controversies of the 1970s have faded, and the court has stayed away from reviving them. It turned down a similar case from Florida last year.
In other action Monday, the court:
* Agreed to settle a trademark fight involving the lingerie catalog Victoria's Secret.
* Refused to hear an appeal from Vanessa Leggett, the Texas crime writer jailed for more than five months for refusing to turn over interview notes about a society murder.
* Refused to consider the legality of voting by mail in Oregon, which has eliminated most polling places. Voters have multiple days, not just one, to make their choices.
* Turned down an appeal from a California hospital that fired a woman whose sometimes hours-long primping rituals repeatedly made her late. The woman had won a lower court judgment giving her protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
* Passed up a chance to decide whether states have wide discretion to keep crude or contentious messages off personalized license plates. That means Mary Lewis gets to keep her Missouri plate, "ARYAN-1."
The Charlotte busing plan was supposed to end a system that theoretically allowed parents some choice of schools but in practice had left 14,000 black children in segregated schools.
Similar plans were later imposed on other school districts across the nation.
White parents sued to end Charlotte's busing in 1997, arguing that it was harming white students while failing to help the majority of black students. A federal judge agreed, ruling that the school system had achieved the goals of racial balance.
On appeal, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that finding, meaning the busing would continue. But the full, 11-member court agreed to take a second look.
In September, the appeals court ruled 7-4 against continued race-based busing. The decision ended a system of busing inner city students to mostly white suburban schools and suburban students to the inner city.
The ruling cleared the way for the school's substitute plan that sends most children to nearby schools but allows parents to pick other schools if there is room.
The appeals court also rejected the white parents' request that the district pay their nearly $1.5 million legal fees.
In their appeal, attorneys for the black parents argued that the schools have become resegregated, with black students concentrated in a few schools.
The district built schools in largely white neighborhoods -- making it hard to integrate them -- and ignored the physical state of schools in black neighborhoods, the appeal claimed.
The cases are Capacchione v. Belk, 01-1094 and Belk v. Capacchione, 01-1122.
* __
On the Net:
Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools: http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/
4th Circuit Court of Appeals: http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/
Where's my check?
You're right on the mark. Segregation was bound to fail from the start. DEsegrating neighborhoods, which is done by those with like backgrounds, i.e., education, interests, careers, income levels, living next door to each other is what works. It always amazed me that people couldn't understand that. People with like interests living side by side, working for the same goals, is color blindness. Not forced segregation. That's devisive and does nothing more than put neon signs over differences.
No, no, no. With a bag over my head (no eyeholes, please), Chelsea doesn't look so bad to me.
She had better be wheelchair bound or have a mental problem otherwise this is rediculous.
LOL!
This kind of lawsuit represents scumbag lawyers and scumbag Democrats at their scumbag finest, lol.
Regards,
LH
Fine with me.
I never heard a word from her, but I doubt I would take it seriously if I did. Besides, she really doesn't have much going for her to begin with. Connections with the Scumbag Elite might keep her comfortable, but I don't know how truly happy she will ever be. I have a feeling she will eventually fade away into oblivion a la Amy Carter.
But if you get kicks out of beating up on Chelsea Clinton about her looks, then knock yourself out.
I'll stick to beating up the big dogs, namely her disgusting, corrupt, and thoroughly repugnant parents.
Ah, now we're talking. Let's put this Chelsea thing aside (I don't really spend any time trashing her, but the opportunity for a cheap shot was too good to pass up, and it escalated from there). I'd much rather talk about my beloved (albeit admittedly liberal and "politically correct") Chapel Hill. Congrats to your son for getting admitted; not an easy thing even for North Carolina residents, but particularly selective for out-of-state students, as I'm sure you know.
Yes, it's as beautiful as it looks in the brochures, if not more so, especially this time of year. Of particular note is the oldest part of the campus, the northernmost section, from Franklin Street to Cameron Avenue. UNC, as you've no doubt been told 1,000 times, is the nation's oldest public university, and the northern part of the campus is where you'll find the historic landmarks, including the nation's oldest state university building (Old East [1793], still a dorm as it always has been); Person Hall [1796]; the South Building [1798], so called because it was at the time at the southern edge of the campus; and of course the University's symbol, the Old Well (originally the only source of water). For a very brief history of the University, go here.
The real-world, functional central part of the campus (as opposed to the largely decorative historical part), between Cameron Avenue and South Road, has its attractions as well, including the main academic quadrangle, anchored by the Wilson Library (now sometimes referred to as the "Graduate Library," as the much larger, newer, but architecturally challenged Davis Library serves as the main library now; but check out the Reading Room of the Wilson Library, which spans the length of the second floor, and is one of the more impressive rooms you'll see on any campus).
South Campus (south of the Bell Tower and Kenan Stadium (which, by the way, is itself quite beautiful, for a football stadium, anyway) is the newest part of the campus, and is generally, to put it kindly, more functional than it is attractive. Everything's bigger there -- enormous 10-story dorms, the University Hospital, the Med School, the Law School, the Biz School (my alma mater), and the Dean Dome.
Hope you have fun looking around. As far as tips and suggestions are concerned, I'd definitely recommend getting rooms at the Carolina Inn, immediately adjacent to campus -- on fraternity row, in fact. Leave your car there, and you can walk all over campus, and up and down Franklin Street, the village's main street.
Restaurants: Aurora for superior Northern Italian food (I know, it takes chutzpah to recommend an Italian place to a resident of Philadelphia, whose town is full of great Italian restaurants, but trust me on this one); Crook's Corner for more of a local flavor; and Acme Food and Beverage for some innovation. All of these would require a short drive from campus or from the Carolina Inn. If you wish to sample student hangouts on Franklin Street, you might consider the Carolina Coffee Shop for breakfast or the Rathskeller for lunch. Just ask anyone on Franklin Street for directions.
Have fun, and best of luck to your son. If he is of the conservative persuasion, he'll do just fine, and he'll find plenty of "fellow travelers." I won't deny that Chapel Hill leans left (the adminisration, faculty and staff more than the students), but there's a healthy conservative presence as well. Chapel Hill is certainly liberal by Southern standards, but it's no Berkeley.
We did manage to get completely off the topic of this thread, did we not? Sorry about that. Great decision (or non-decision?) by the Supreme Court. We, as a society, must achieve color-blindness someday. Now would be as good a time as any...
Dog, I disagree with you. IMHO busing worked exactly as intended. It divided the races. Many whites who were sympathetic to the civil rights movement changed their minds when their children were threatened.
Now that the "problem profiteers" have hit the mother of all race separators (reparations) busing is no longer needed.
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