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The Pendulum Swings Back
As more court decisions and laws secure the rights of minorities, a new form of segregation begins to evolve. Returning control of school districts to local authorities, acceptance of race-conscious admission practices, and "white flight" begin to contribute to a new separation of the races in public schools.
Segregation and the "Separate but Equal" Doctrine
Making the Case to Integrate Public Schools
The Pendulum Swings Back
1974 Milliken v. Bradley
The Supreme Court rules that inter-district
remedies between a city and the surrounding suburbs to
desegregate city schools are not permitted.
1974 Lau v. Nichols
The San Francisco School District is found
to have violated the Civil Rights Act by refusing to provide
English language instruction to 1,800 Chinese-Americans
students.
1974 Another step forward
The Equal Educational Opportunities Act
states that students may not be denied equal educational
opportunities because of their race, color, sex, or national
origin, or by the failure of an educational agency to take
appropriate steps to overcome language barriers.
1975 Remembering children with
disabilities
The Education for All Handicapped Children
Act states that all children with disabilities are entitled to
a fair and appropriate education. This is later reauthorized as
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
1978 Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke
The Supreme Court rules that universities
and K-12 schools can take race into account in admissions, but
cannot use quotas.
1982 Bob Jones University and
Goldsboro Christian Schools, Inc. v. U.S.
The Supreme Court rules that religious
schools that discriminate cannot receive tax exemptions.
1995 Missouri v. Jenkins
The Supreme Court returns control of
schools to local authorities, prompting many districts forced
by court order into desegregation to relax their integration
plans. The Court rules that some inequities, such as poor
achievement among black students, are beyond the authority of
the federal courts to address.
1996 Nabozny v. Podlesny
A U.S. Court of Appeals overrules a
district court and rules that a gay student is protected by the
14th Amendment from harassment and assault based on his sexual
orientation. This ruling makes clear that schools are
responsible for enforcing sexual harassment policies.
Sheff v. O'Neil
The Supreme Court of Connecticut finds the
state liable for maintaining racial and ethnic isolation and
orders the state to propose remedies.
2001 Court-ordered desegregation ends
Thirty years of court-supervised
desegregation ends in North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools
when the Supreme Court declines to revisit its 1971 ruling, Swann v.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.
2003 Clearing away a barrier
Two affirmative action cases, Gratz v. Bollinger
and Grutter v. Bollinger, find that the limited use of race-conscious
measures in student admissions is constitutional.