Cleveland Schools Ripped for Racial Segregation

Following a five-decade-long legal battle, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi has ordered the Cleveland School District to consolidate its secondary schools, effectively ending the desegregation of Cleveland’s middle and high school program for the first time in over a century.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said, “Six decades after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education 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.”

The 96-page opinion concluded that the school district operated an inadequate dual system and failed to achieve the greatest degree of desegregation possible given the circumstances. The court noted that “the delay in desegregation has deprived generations of students of the constitutionally-guaranteed right of an integrated education. 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.”

Under the approved plan, the district will consolidate the virtually all-black D.M. Smith Middle School with the historically white Margaret Green Junior High School and the virtually all-black East Side High School with the historically white Cleveland High School. The district will also review its existing educational programs and identify new programs for the consolidated schools, address staffing considerations and perform necessary maintenance and upgrades to facilities.

Community members, from parents and faith leaders to former teachers and coaches, testified in court in 2012 and 2015, describing the stigma long associated with the district’s black schools and the sense among black children in the community that white children attended better schools. During last May’s hearing, they 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.

The approved plan commits the district to a path of full engagement with students, parents, educators, and community stakeholders in implementing consolidation. Cleveland is a small Mississippi-Delta city of 12,000 residents, divided by railroad tracks that separate east from west as well as black from white.

The ruling follows years of collaborative work with the local community and private plaintiffs in this case. As one community member testified, “[w]e 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.”

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