When my grandfather, Calvin C. Green, beat New Kent County in a case to enforce integration with busses, it was a salient moment for 1968. The case had escalated to the Supreme Court of the United States from a rural Virginia town. A private note to Justice Brennan from Justice Warren said: "When this opinion is handed down, the traffic light will have changed from Brown to Green. Amen!" Supreme court justices sliding secret notes, conspiring about Black opportunity in the 60s, signaled a new perspective. Therefore, I thought this singular event made the most difference.
However, I needed to understand the dynamics in other states to conceive the tie of culture change. This timeline from Learning for Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center is phenomenal! Studying it helped me understand my grandfather's supreme court case to desegregate Virginia schools in context with similar cases all over the country.
Below are the states that had Supreme Court level school integration litigation and policy change AFTER Brown v Board of Education was decided in 1954.
1954 Washington D.C. received federal mandate to integrate Bolling v. Sharpe
1955-1960 Federal judges hear over 200 desegregation hearings
1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is adopted. Title IV of the Act authorizes the federal government to file school desegregation cases.
1968
SC orders states to dismantle segregated school systems by identifying five structural & systemic factors — facilities, staff, faculty, extracurricular activities and transportation — to be force system's compliance with Brown.
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
1969 SC declares the speed of desegregation orders in Mississippi schools is unconstitutionally fast Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education
1971 SC approves busing, magnet schools, compensatory education and other systemic solutions to overcome the role of residential segregation in segregated schools Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education
1972 SC shuts down white flight through "splinter districts." Wright v. Council of the City of Emporia United States v. Scotland Neck City Board of Education
1973
SC rules that states cannot avoid integration mandates by resourcing Black private schools.
Norwood v. Harrison
SC rebukes segregation of any race from white students
Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1
SC says state-mandated segregation (de jure) is unconstitutional and private segregation is OK (de facto).
SC rules that education is not a "fundamental right" and that the Constitution does not require equal education expenditures within a state.
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
1974 The SC weakens Brown by blocking metropolitan-wide desegregation plans. Milliken v. Bradley
1978 A fractured SC declares the affirmative action admissions program for the University of California Davis Medical School unconstitutional. The Court rules that race can be a factor in university admissions, but not the deciding factor. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
1982 SC rejects tax exemptions for private religious schools that discriminate. Bob Jones University v. U.S. Goldboro Christian Schools v. U.S.
1986 A federal court decided that once a school district meets the Green factors, it can be released from integration plans and returned to local control. Riddick v. School Board of the City of Norfolk, Virginia
1991 SC makes it easier for formerly segregated school systems to fulfill their "desegregation decrees" and return to neighborhood schools faster Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell 1992 SC further speeds desegregation cases, by ruling that school systems can fulfill their obligations incrementally Freeman v. Pitts SC rules that race-neutral measures in colleges & universities is insufficient, especially for federally segregated institutions. United States v. Fordice
1995 SC sets a new goal for desegregation plans to all end in "limited in time and extent." Missouri v. Jenkins
1996 A federal appeals court effectively ends affirmative action in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. Hopwood v. Texas
2003 SC upholds diversity as a rationale for affirmative action programs, but concludes that point systems are not appropriate.
Grutter v. Bollinger
Gratz v. Bollinger
2007 In Parents Involved, the SC finds voluntary school integration plans unconstitutional, paving the way for contemporary school segregation to escalate.
Who has the deets from 2007-2022??