1979
In August, the ACLU and a group of black parents reopen the original Brown case in Topeka, arguing that twenty-five years after the decision many of the city’s schools remain racially segregated.
1970
1978
According to a Harris & Associates opinion poll, 63% of black parents and 56% of white parents say that their experience of being bused for desegregation has been “very satisfactory.”
1976
Congress prohibits the department of Health Education and Welfare from threatening to withhold federal funds to force school districts to bus students beyond the schools nearest their homes as a means of achieving racial integration.
1975
According to a poll by the National Opinion Research Center, black opposition to busing reaches its high point with 53% of blacks opposed.
June
Judge Arthur Garrity issues an elaborate plan to desegregate Boston’s public schools, ordering the busing of 21,000 students. In response, race riots erupt in high schools in Hyde Park, Roxbury, and South Boston. Governor Francis Sargent calls in the National Guard and appeals to President Ford to send federal troops to quell the disturbances.
1974
Congress attempts to limit courts’ ability to order busing in the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, 20 U.S.C. �1703.
1973
March
1972
The proportion of black children attending all-black schools in the South falls to 8% from 68% in 1968. By the end of Nixon’s first term, Southern school systems lead the nation in desegregation rates. Ninety-one percent of black students in the South attend integrated schools.
1971
March
In Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971), the Supreme Court holds that employment practices that have a disparate impact on black workers are illegal, even without a showing of intent to discriminate, if employers cannot demonstrate that the practice is justified by a business necessity.
1970
The enrollment of black students in predominantly white Southern schools rises to 33% from one-tenth of one percent in 1960. Whereas in 1960 almost all black students attended all-black schools, by 1970, only 34% of blacks remain in intensely segregated schools in the South.
1970
The enrollment of black students in predominantly white Southern schools rises to 33% from one-tenth of one percent in 1960. Whereas in 1960 almost all black students attended all-black schools, by 1970, only 34% of blacks remain in intensely segregated schools in the South.
April
In Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471 (1970), the Supreme Court upholds a Maryland law that limits monthly welfare grants to a family to $250, regardless of the family’s size or computed need. The Court holds that regulations directed against the poor do not warrant any special judicial scrutiny. By contrast, in August the California Supreme Court strikes down a property-based school financing scheme in Serrano v. Priest (Serrano I), 487 P.2d 1241 (Cal. 1970), holding that wealth is a suspect classification and that education is a fundamental right.
March
In Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971), the Supreme Court holds that employment practices that have a disparate impact on black workers are illegal, even without a showing of intent to discriminate, if employers cannot demonstrate that the practice is justified by a business necessity.
April
The Supreme Court specifically endorses busing as a remedy for school desegregation in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971). The Court holds that desegregation must be achieved in each of a district’s schools to the “greatest extent possible.” In the companion case of North Carolina State Board of Education v. Swann, 402 U.S. 43 (1971), the Court strikes down North Carolina’s Anti-Busing Law that prohibited making student assignments on the basis of race.
June
In Palmer v. Thompson, 403 U.S. 217 (1971), the Court upholds Jackson, Mississippi’s decision to close public swimming pools after a court ordered them desegregated. The Court refuses to inquire into the motivation behind legislative action.
September
Justices Hugo L. Black and John Marshall Harlan retire. They are replaced in January 1972 by William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell, giving Nixon four appointments to the Supreme Court in his first term.
November
In Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71 (1971), the Supreme Court strikes down an Idaho law that required that men be chosen as administrators of estates; the decision marks the beginning of modern constitutional doctrines of sex equality.
The proportion of black children attending all-black schools in the South falls to 8% from 68% in 1968. By the end of Nixon’s first term, Southern school systems lead the nation in desegregation rates. Ninety-one percent of black students in the South attend integrated schools.
On March 22, 1972, Congress passes the Equal Rights Amendment to guarantee sex equality. By early 1973, 30 of the necessary 38 states have endorsed the amendment, but it ultimately fails to win ratification. The next year, the Supreme Court decides Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973) and four justices hold that classifications based on sex should be treated with the same degree of suspicion as those based on race.
March
In San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973), the Supreme Court holds that education is not a fundamental right and that unequal school funding does not violate the Constitution. It reaffirms that classifications based on wealth are not unconstitutional. Attention now shifts to state constitutional challenges, and between 1973 and 1988 courts in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming hold unequal school financing schemes unconstitutional. In 1989, the Texas Supreme Court holds that the state’s public school financing scheme upheld in Rodriguez violates the state constitution.
June
In Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1, 413 U.S. 189 (1973), the Supreme Court considers the problems of Northern metropolitan segregation for the first time, as well as the rights of Latinos to desegregated education. In the North, school segregation is often the result of demographic shifts and residential segregation rather than deliberate segregation of schools. The Court uses an elaborate series of presumptions to establish discriminatory intent and justify a remedy. Justice Powell rejects this inquiry into intention, arguing that the harm of segregation is the same whether school segregation is mandated by law (de jure segregation) or produced by other factors (de facto segregation). However, he argues that busing as a remedy should be significantly limited.
In Norwood v. Harrison, 413 U.S. 455 (1973), the Supreme Court holds that Mississippi cannot lend textbooks to students attending private segregated schools.
Congress attempts to limit courts’ ability to order busing in the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, 20 U.S.C. �1703.
July
In Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974), the Supreme Court strikes down a desegregation plan that involved black schools in the city of Detroit and white schools in the suburbs. The Court holds that courts May not order remedies among different districts unless it shows discriminatory intention in each district or a discriminatory policy in one district that has segregative effects in other districts. The decision effectively puts an end to most judicial remedies linking white suburbs with black inner cities. The case is decided by a 5 to 4 vote, with all four of President Nixon’s appointees in the majority. Prior to Milliken, all school desegregation cases had been unanimous.
August
President Nixon resigns and is replaced by Gerald Ford.
According to a poll by the National Opinion Research Center, black opposition to busing reaches its high point with 53% of blacks opposed.
June
Judge Arthur Garrity issues an elaborate plan to desegregate Boston’s public schools, ordering the busing of 21,000 students. In response, race riots erupt in high schools in Hyde Park, Roxbury, and South Boston. Governor Francis Sargent calls in the National Guard and appeals to President Ford to send federal troops to quell the disturbances.
The violence in Boston represents the height of national tension over busing. Also in the early 1970s, dynamite explosions in Denver destroy over one-third of the city’s buses; a mob in Lamar, South Carolina attacks school buses carrying children; protesters in Pontiac, Michigan boycott the schools and firebomb buses; and in Trenton, New Jersey, race riots by students and others force the schools to close for two days.
In the same month that Boston erupts in race riots, the public swimming pools in Jackson, Mississippi are finally integrated.
Congress prohibits the department of Health Education and Welfare from threatening to withhold federal funds to force school districts to bus students beyond the schools nearest their homes as a means of achieving racial integration.
June
In Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229 (1976), the Supreme Court holds that a law or government policy does not violate the Equal Protection Clause even if it has discriminatory effects unless it can be proved that it was motivated by a purpose or intention to discriminate against a racial group. The Court upholds the use of a qualifying exam for police officers despite allegations that the test was racially biased.
According to a Harris & Associates opinion poll, 63% of black parents and 56% of white parents say that their experience of being bused for desegregation has been “very satisfactory.”
June
In Regents of The University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), the Supreme Court confronts the growing debate over affirmative action. It strikes down a state medical school admissions policy that set aside a specific number of seats for minority candidates. Justice Powell’s opinion takes a middle position and becomes generally recognized as stating the holding of the case, even though it is joined by no other Justices. Powell holds that “benign” racial classifications are subject to the test of “strict scrutiny,” and the set-aside is unconstitutional. However, a race-conscious admissions policy that uses race as a “plus factor” in an effort to achieve “diversity” May be constitutional. As a result, the language of “diversity” becomes a key concept in the affirmative action debate.
In August, the ACLU and a group of black parents reopen the original Brown case in Topeka, arguing that twenty-five years after the decision many of the city’s schools remain racially segregated.
