According to a Harris poll, 64% of whites, 63% of blacks, and 70% of Asians whose children have been bused say that the experience has been “very satisfactory.” Only 4% of blacks, 6% of whites, and 2% of Asians say the experience has been “unsatisfactory.”
Segregation trends in Chicago exemplify the pattern in big cities. Of the over one million students enrolled in public schools, 30% are black, 13% are Latino, and slightly more than 50% are white. Sixty-nine percent of black students attend schools that are 90-100% minority. Sixty-three percent of white students are enrolled in schools that are 90-100% white. All but one of these schools is located in the suburbs of Chicago, and 94% of the students in the 90-100% minority schools attend schools within the Chicago city limits.
In metropolitan Los Angeles, high schools with more than 80% white students average less than 3% low income students. Those high schools attended predominantly by minorities are composed of one-third low-income students.
The largest twenty-five urban school districts in the country now enroll 30% of Latino students, 27% of black students, and only 3% of the white population. According to a poll conducted by the National Opinion Center, black opposition to busing falls to 38% .
January
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
April
In Palmore v. Sidoti, 466 U.S. 429 (1984), the Supreme Court holds that a state court custody ruling that denied a mother custody of her child because she remarried a black man violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court notes that though the child of an interracial couple May face stigma, “the law cannot, directly or indirectly, give [private biases] effect.”
According to the National Opinion Research Center, 90% of whites now believe in the principle of integration.
June
In Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), the Supreme Court holds that Texas May not deny free public education to the children of illegal immigrants.
At the behest of the Reagan administration, Congress converts the Emergency School Aid Act of 1972, which provided schools with $149 million for desegregation programs, into a block grant program for education generally. This effectively cuts off the only substantial source of federal funding for desegregation remedies. This is the largest of the many federal spending programs slashed in the first months of the Reagan Administration. However, the provision that earmarks funds for magnet schools is later restored in June of 1984.
The percentage of white students attending predominantly white schools drops from 78% in 1968 to 61% in 1980. The percentage of black students attending schools that are at least 90% minority drops from 64.3% in 1968 to 33.2% in 1980.
July
The Supreme Court upholds an affirmative action program for federal contractors in Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448 (1980).
November
Ronald Reagan is elected President
The percentage of white students attending predominantly white schools drops from 78% in 1968 to 61% in 1980. The percentage of black students attending schools that are at least 90% minority drops from 64.3% in 1968 to 33.2% in 1980.
July
The Supreme Court upholds an affirmative action program for federal contractors in Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448 (1980).
November
Ronald Reagan is elected President
At the behest of the Reagan administration, Congress converts the Emergency School Aid Act of 1972, which provided schools with $149 million for desegregation programs, into a block grant program for education generally. This effectively cuts off the only substantial source of federal funding for desegregation remedies. This is the largest of the many federal spending programs slashed in the first months of the Reagan Administration. However, the provision that earmarks funds for magnet schools is later restored in June of 1984.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights William Bradford Reynolds tells a congressional committee that “compulsory busing of students in order to achieve racial balance in the public schools is not an acceptable remedy.” Throughout the Reagan Administration, Reynolds makes speeches emphasizing that blacks would be better off in de facto, segregated, neighborhood schools than in integrated, non-neighborhood schools. He also speaks out repeatedly against affirmative action, arguing that colorblindness was the basic principle of the Civil Rights Movement.
Los Angeles becomes the first major city to abandon desegregation and to return to neighborhood schools. Between 1979 and 1993, the city receives over three billion dollars in federal and state aid to equalize resources and opportunities in minority schools.
September
Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman Supreme Court Justice.
According to the National Opinion Research Center, 90% of whites now believe in the principle of integration.
June
In Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), the Supreme Court holds that Texas May not deny free public education to the children of illegal immigrants.
In Washington v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1, 458 U.S. 457 (1982), the Supreme Court strikes down a popular initiative that prevented school boards from ordering busing. However, in Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education, 458 U.S. 527 (1982), the Court upholds a California constitutional amendment that limited judicial power to order busing.
November
After renouncing segregation, George Wallace is re-elected as Governor of Alabama, this time with the support of a majority of black voters.
April
In Palmore v. Sidoti, 466 U.S. 429 (1984), the Supreme Court holds that a state court custody ruling that denied a mother custody of her child because she remarried a black man violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court notes that though the child of an interracial couple May face stigma, “the law cannot, directly or indirectly, give [private biases] effect.”
The largest twenty-five urban school districts in the country now enroll 30% of Latino students, 27% of black students, and only 3% of the white population. According to a poll conducted by the National Opinion Center, black opposition to busing falls to 38% .
January
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
February
The Fourth Circuit allows the Norfolk school district, which had been declared unitary in 1975, to dismantle its segregation plan and return to local control and neighborhood schools. Norfolk promptly ends its busing plan and creates ten almost all-black elementary schools and three disproportionately white elementary schools.
May
In Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education, 476 U.S. 267 (1986), the Supreme Court holds that a school board’s layoff policy that granted preferences to minority employees violates the Equal Protection Clause.
June
President Reagan appoints Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court to fill the seat left vacant by Justice Burger’s resignation and appoints Justice William H. Rehnquist as Chief Justice.
In metropolitan Los Angeles, high schools with more than 80% white students average less than 3% low income students. Those high schools attended predominantly by minorities are composed of one-third low-income students.
June
Justice Powell retires. President Reagan nominates Robert Bork to fill the vacancy. His confirmation hearings become an ideologically charged battle, and he is not confirmed. Reagan then nominates Douglas H. Ginsburg from the D.C. Court of Appeals, but his nomination is derailed when it is discovered that he smoked marijuana while a law professor. In November, Reagan nominates Anthony M. Kennedy of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who is confirmed and takes his seat the next February.
Segregation trends in Chicago exemplify the pattern in big cities. Of the over one million students enrolled in public schools, 30% are black, 13% are Latino, and slightly more than 50% are white. Sixty-nine percent of black students attend schools that are 90-100% minority. Sixty-three percent of white students are enrolled in schools that are 90-100% white. All but one of these schools is located in the suburbs of Chicago, and 94% of the students in the 90-100% minority schools attend schools within the Chicago city limits.
March
On the 22nd, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 over President Reagan’s veto. The Act corrects a 1984 Supreme Court decision, Grove City College v. Bell, 465 U.S. 555 (1984), that limited the government’s ability to withhold federal funds from institutions that discriminated on the basis of race or sex.
June
In Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U.S. 450 (1988), the Supreme Court reaffirms that education is not a fundamental right.
According to a Harris poll, 64% of whites, 63% of blacks, and 70% of Asians whose children have been bused say that the experience has been “very satisfactory.” Only 4% of blacks, 6% of whites, and 2% of Asians say the experience has been “unsatisfactory.”
Between 1989 and 1999, twenty-two challenges to school financing schemes are brought under state constitutional provisions that promise educational adequacy, in contrast to the equity challenges brought in the 1970s and 80s. Eleven state supreme courts invalidate financing schemes as inadequate and order state legislatures or school boards to craft new financing schemes includes: Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont. Eleven other states reject the challenges: Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
June
In City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson, 488 U.S. 469 (1989), the Supreme Court holds 5-4 that state and local affirmative action plans are subject to the same strict scrutiny as deliberate discrimination against racial minorities. In effect, this makes racial affirmative action presumptively unconstitutional. The Court strikes down the City of Richmond’s plan to award minority owned businesses a certain percentage of construction contracts to help remedy the effects of past discrimination in the industry. The Court holds that remedying past societal discrimination cannot be a constitutional justification for affirmative action.
In Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Antonio, 490 U.S. 642 (1989), the Supreme Court makes it more difficult for plaintiffs to win employment discrimination suits. The case generates an outcry to amend Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to overturn the decision, and Congress passes a 1990 Civil Rights Act. President Bush vetoes the bill, declaring it a “quota bill.” During the furor over the Clarence Thomas nomination in 1991, the Act is passed again, and Bush signs it into law.
