1990

1991 By the 1990-1991 school year, three-fourths of the white population lives in suburban and rural areas; blacks and Latinos reside largely in urban areas. Although whites comprise 70.7% of student enrollment nationwide, only 25% of students enrolled in the nation’s largest forty-seven urban districts are white; blacks comprise 42.1% of the enrollment, and Latinos comprise 26.5%. Over 50% of students in the country’s large urban districts are eligible for a free or reduced lunch�the primary measure of student poverty. Sixty-six percent of black students are now enrolled in public schools with a more than 50% minority population. National data demonstrate that schools with a majority of minority children are dominated by poor children, but that 96% of white schools are populated by a middle-class majority.

April
In Board of Education v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237 (1991), the Supreme Court holds that courts May end desegregation orders in school districts that had attempted in good faith to comply, even if this would result in immediate resegregation.

July
Justice Thurgood Marshall retires from the Supreme Court on June 27. President Bush nominates Clarence Thomas to replace him. During his confirmation hearings, Thomas becomes embroiled in a national controversy after being accused by Anita Hill, a former employee, of sexual harassment. Despite the controversy, the Senate confirms the nomination, and Thomas takes his seat in October.

Approximately 95% of white Americans now support the principle of integrated education as compared to 42% in 1942. Public opinion polls reveal similar increases in white support for the integration of public accommodations and mass transportation. Nevertheless, while only 17% of whites object to sending their children to a school that is half black, 42% of whites are opposed to sending their children to a school that is majority black. In Norfolk, Virginia, a return to neighborhood schools has led to the creation of disproportionately white and black schools. In 1985, before the end of busing, 11% of Norfolk’s black students were in schools that were 75% black or more. In 1993, 41% of all black students are in predominantly black schools. In a majority of the segregated schools, more than 90% of the students are poor. In Montgomery County, Maryland, there is a dramatic increase in the percentage of students in high-poverty schools for every group but white students. From 1988 to 1993, the rate of black students in high poverty schools jumps from 11% to 25%; the rate for Latinos rises from 14% to 40%; and the rate for whites moves from just 7% to 8%. According to a United Nations report, on the Human Development Index, which is based on per capita income, educational attainment, and longevity, the United States rank sixth in the world; white Americans by themselves rank first, and African Americans by themselves rank thirty-first.

January
On the 24th, Thurgood Marshall dies at the age of 84. Millions of people watch the memorial service on television, and over 4000 people attend the service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

June
In Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993), the Supreme Court permits a challenge to a North Carolina redistricting plan designed to increase minority representation in Congress. In a series of cases following Shaw the Court eventually holds that redistricting primarily based on racial demographics is presumptively unconstitutional.

One-hundred per cent of the students in the public school systems of East St. Louis, Illinois and Compton California are minorities. Ninety-six percent of public school students in Washington, D.C. and Camden, New Jersey are minorities, along with 94% in Hartford, Connecticut and New Orleans, 93% in Los Angeles, Oakland, Atlanta, and Paterson, New Jersey, and 83% in the New York City public school system.
The median income of black households is $22,393; the median income of Latino households is $22,860; and the median income of white households is $35,766. Whereas 26.4% of black families and 27% of Latino families fall below the poverty line, only 8.5% of white families do.

June
In Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U.S. 70 (1995) (Jenkins II), the Supreme Court overturns an ambitious plan for magnet schools in Kansas City designed to attract suburban white students back into the inner city. This Court argues that this goal is unjustified and unnecessary to remedy past segregation. The Court states that the primary goal of desegregation cases should be to return schools to local control. It also rejects the argument that increased spending on education could be justified in order to remedy reduced achievement by students in inner city schools. Justice Thomas concurs, arguing that the mere fact that a school has no white students does not mean that a constitutional violation has occurred. Only deliberate segregation by law violates the Constitution. He criticizes the assumption that black students suffer any psychological harm from being segregated from whites, contending that it rests upon questionable social science research and an assumption of black inferiority.
In Adarand Constructors v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200 (1995), the Supreme Court overturns Metro Broadcasting. It holds that strict scrutiny must be applied to all racial classifications by the federal government � both “benign” and “invidious.”
In Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900 (1995), the Supreme Court extends Shaw v. Reno, holding that if race is the predominant factor in legislative redistricting, strict scrutiny applies.

September
The Denver plan that gave rise to Keyes, the first non-Southern desegregation case, is dissolved.