I can speak about Arkansas schools since I'm a graduate of one (no jokes about literacy, please). After nearly 50 years, the Little Rock School District is finally free of Federal supervision.
A judge in one of the nation's longest-running school desegregation cases released the Little Rock district from federal supervision Friday, nearly 50 years after President Eisenhower sent in troops to escort nine black students into all-white Central High.
U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson Jr. said the district is substantially complying with a 1998 desegregation plan worked out in the 27,000-student district.
With blacks gaining a majority on the school board last September, the judge said he felt comfortable ending court supervision.
Three is so much more to this story than four paragraphs with a brief reminder of how ignorant and backwards Governor Orval Faubus was.
When I was attending high school in the 80s, I attended a school in the Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD). It was a good school, albeit small (my graduating class was less than 150). During the mid 80s, the crime rate in the city of Little Rock got out of control as gang activity increased. The so-called "white flight" from Little Rock affected the tax base and the schools.
Now keep in mind that forced desegregation of the Little Rock School District dated back to 1957 with the famous and heroic Little Rock Nine. So for the previous three decades, there had been monitoring of the Little Rock School District. Through a series of lawsuits initiated by the district, the North Little Rock School District and the PCSSD were also desegregated and monitored. On a side note, while researching the history of the Little Rock School District, I found countless lawsuits against PCSSD and other school districts initiated by the district over the years, continuing to this day.
When the "white flight" was peaking in the 80s, the Little Rock School District was 70% black and the district filed suit against PCSSD and North Little Rock School District claiming that the only way to maintain racial balance was to consolidate all three districts. At that time North Little Rock was at 36% and the PCSSD was 22% black. Little Rock School District claimed that consolidation would create equality because then students from all over Pulaski County could be bussed. As a student then, I was worried. I had been bussed as a North Little Rock student in fifth grade and hated it–I went from a neighborhood school in walking distance from my house to riding a bus for two hours a day. As any kid will tell you, the bus sucks.
The lawsuit was not really about racial equality. It was about money. Little Rock was mismanaging the escalating crime problem and middle-class parents were moving their children away from problems. The PCSSD was an excellent district (at that time). Who could blame the parents? (Besides Little Rock, I mean.) Unfortunately, school districts suffer because of other government problems, as Little Rock proved. The consolidation seemed to be to be a message to "white fliers", the county, and North Little Rock: "You are not better than us and you can't leave us behind." Using racial desegregation as a ploy to increase tax revenue was a misuse of our legal system. Little Rock didn't get the consolidation, but they did annex fourteen schools from the PCSSD, which began the the descent of the the PCSSD's quality. As a result of the suit, another twenty years of federal management began. More students were bussed, North Little Rock consolidated two high schools, and the Little Rock School District reacquired tax payers who left the city for a reason.
Ironically, Little Rock was the only district of the three petitioning for the end of court supervision of desegregation as of this writing.
The point here is that there was never any balance, not racially, legally, or even morally. Orval Faubus fought the rule of law at the expense of his state's rights by forcing Eisenhower to federalize the Arkansas National Guard as well as send the 101st Airborne to enforce Federal law. Faubus was a genuine ass and an embarrassment to the state's history. Since then, desegregation has become an apparent legal revolving door for Little Rock. It makes me wonder if Little Rock could have used its legal funds to actually improve education. There is rhetoric about quality education and there is reality. With 70% black students in the 80s, Little Rock has not needed court supervision for a long time. Using the black-to-white ratio of the school board as a marker that the district was finally desegregated was weak and proved that it was never about the students. Students have been needlessly bussed at the expense of tax dollars that could have gone to technology, better teacher pay, or even new schools.
So when I saw the article about the ruling, I thought most Americans cannot appreciate its significance unless they know something of the history of race and the central Arkansas school districts. I recommend the following links:
- Reexamining Central High: American Memory and Social Reality
- A History of the Little Rock School District
- Free at Last: Or will obstacles persist in getting LR schools out of court?
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