Dismantling desegregation

by Gary Orfield

For the first time since 1954, school segregation is actually increasing for African American students. In several rarely discussed decisions, including one as recent as June 1995, the Supreme Court has opened the door for wide-scale abandonment of desegregation plans. This "quiet reversal" of Brown v. Board of Education, now brought boldly into the open by Orfield and Eaton, has threatened to dismantle desegregation. With stinging profiles of school districts nationwide that have turned their back on the promise of Brown, they analyze this devastating trend, offering evidence and solutions guaranteed to stimulate national debate about the state of our schools today. Profiles of school districts across the country highlight the kind of in-school discrimination and residential segregation issues that most communities have refused to address.