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The ruling comes over 50 years after the initial lawsuit was filed.Video provided by Newsy Newslook
In this May 13, 2015, photo, an integrated group of Cleveland, Miss., public school students ride the bus home following classes.(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP)
JACKSON, Miss. —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>A federal court has ordered the Cleveland, Miss., School District to merge its majority black secondary schools with historically white schools to end a five-decade legal battle to desegregate the city's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>schools.
U.S. District Judge Debra Brown rejected two alternatives the 3,700-student school district previously proposed as unconstitutional, agreeing with the Justice Department that the only way to achieve desegregation is to combine Cleveland’s high schools and middle schools. The system has 12 schools total.
“Six decades after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education<span style="color: Red;">*</span>declared that ‘separate but equal has no place’ in public schools, this decision serves as a reminder to districts that delaying desegregation obligations is both unacceptable and unconstitutional,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
“This victory creates new opportunities for the children of Cleveland to learn, play and thrive together," she said. "The court’s ruling will result in the immediate and effective desegregation of the district’s middle school and high school program for the first time in the district’s more than century-long history.”
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Cleveland is one of 179 school systems across the USA involved in major desegregation cases, Atlantic magazine reported last year.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Mississippi had 44 open cases then, more than any other state.
But Cleveland's case isn't about resegregation after complying with the Supreme Court's May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Instead, schools in this Mississippi Delta city of 12,000 divided by railroad tracks that separate east from west as well as black from white<span style="color: Red;">*</span>never fully desegregated.
Brown, whose court is in Greenville, Miss., about 30 miles from Cleveland, ordered the parties to submit a proposal to put a desegregation plan in place immediately and set a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>deadline for no later than 21 days from the entry of her opinion, which was issued Friday. The expectation: The two high schools and two middle schools will be combined beginning in early August with the 2016-17 school year.
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Seniors graduate this week, Thursday for virtually all-black East Side High, Friday for historically white<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Cleveland High.
"The delay in desegregation has deprived generations of students of the constitutionally-guaranteed right of an integrated education," Brown said in her 96-page 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 school district operated an inadequate dual system and failed to achieve the greatest degree of desegregation possible given the circumstances, Brown wrote.
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Under the Justice Department’s plan approved by the court — which was developed in consultation with experts in school desegregation, school facilities, school financing and parent and community engagement — the Cleveland<span style="color: Red;">*</span>district will merge the virtually all-black D.M. Smith Middle School with the historically white Margaret Green Junior High School as well as the two high schools.
Further, the district will review its existing educational programs and identify new programs for the consolidated schools, address staffing considerations and perform necessary maintenance and upgrades to facilities. About 66% of the students in the district, which is in the Mississippi Delta<span style="color: Red;">*</span>about 125 miles northwest of Jackson,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are black, 30% are white and 4% are Asian or Hispanic.
The federal court<span style="color: Red;">*</span>ruling follows years of collaborative work with the local community and private plaintiffs in this case.
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Community members — from parents and faith leaders<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to former teachers and coaches — testified in court in 2012 and 2015. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>They described the stigma long associated with the district’s black schools and the sense among black children that white children attended better schools.
During the May 2015 hearing, witnesses testified that consolidation was the only way to bridge the divide and expressed a willingness to take the steps, however difficult, to secure equal educational opportunities for their children and grandchildren. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>Parents of all racial backgrounds testified that they wanted their children to learn in a diverse environment to prepare them for the world today.
"We can break down this wall of racism that divides us and keeps us separated, and we could create a new culture in our school system that’s going to unite us and unite our whole city,” one resident testified.
Follow Jimmie E. Gates on Twitter:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>@jgatesnews
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