Desegregation

Read more about efforts to reduce racial isolation in schools, including by courts, agencies, and districts
Topeka, Kansas, USA: Afternoon sun shines on the school at the center of the Brown v Board of Education legal decision that ended educational segregation.
Matt Gush/iStock
Equity & Diversity Opinion When Did We Become Disillusioned With Desegregation?
Forty years ago, the civil rights attorney and professor Derrick Bell diagnosed where the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education went wrong.
Mary Hendrie, May 30, 2024
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7 min read
A hand holds a scale weighing integration against resource allocation in observation of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education case.
Noelle Rx for Education Week
Equity & Diversity Opinion 70 Years After 'Brown,' Schools Are Still Separate and Unequal
The legal strategy to prioritize school integration has had some unforeseen consequences in the decades since.
Sharif El-Mekki, May 20, 2024
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4 min read
A Black student is isolated from their classmates by an aisle in the classroom.
Xia Gordon for Education Week
Equity & Diversity Opinion 70 Years of Abandonment: The Failed Promise of 'Brown v. Board'
If the nation is going to refuse integration, Black people must demand we revisit the separate but equal doctrine, writes Bettina L. Love.
Bettina L. Love, May 16, 2024
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4 min read
People mill around the third floor of the Kansas Statehouse in front of a Brown v. Board of Education mural before hearing from speakers recognizing the 70th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case on April 29, 2024, in Topeka, Kan.
People mill around the third floor of the Kansas Statehouse in front of a <i>Brown </i>v. <i>Board of Education</i> mural before hearing from speakers recognizing the 70th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case on April 29, 2024, in Topeka, Kan.
Evert Nelson/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP
Law & Courts Brown v. Board of Education: 70 Years of Progress and Challenges
The milestone for the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down racial segregation in schools is marked by a range of tributes
Mark Walsh, May 14, 2024
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12 min read
First-graders listen to teacher Dwane Davis at Milwaukee Math and Science Academy, a charter school in Milwaukee on Oct. 20, 2017. Charter schools are among the nation's most segregated, an Associated Press analysis finds — an outcome at odds, critics say, with their goal of offering a better alternative to failing traditional public schools.
First-graders listen to teacher Dwane Davis at Milwaukee Math and Science Academy, a charter school in Milwaukee on Oct. 20, 2017. Charter schools are among the nation's most segregated, an Associated Press analysis finds—an outcome at odds, critics say, with their goal of offering a better alternative to failing traditional public schools.
Carrie Antlfinger/AP
School & District Management What the Research Says A New Way for Educators to Think About School Segregation
Seventy years after the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board, Stanford researchers find racial, economic isolation spiking in schools.
Sarah D. Sparks, May 6, 2024
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4 min read
A group photo picturing 12 of the Memphis 13.
A group photo of 12 of the Memphis 13 students.
Courtesy of the Memphis 13 Foundation
Social Studies What the Research Says Oral History Offers a Model for How Schools Can Introduce Students to Complex Topics
Community history projects like a curriculum in Memphis, Tenn. can help students grapple with issues like school segregation, experts say.
Sarah D. Sparks, April 22, 2024
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4 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
Teaching Opinion An Interview With Educator and Author Jonathan Kozol
In his new book, longtime activist Jonathan Kozol dives further into school inequity and offers solutions.
Larry Ferlazzo, March 20, 2024
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6 min read
Law themed still life featuring Themis statue, judge gavel and scale of justice in a law library.
iStock / Getty Images
Law & Courts State Judge Says 'Racially Isolated Districts Persist' in New Jersey
A state judge allows a narrowed claim to go forward that the state may be liable for pervasive racial isolation in its public schools.
Mark Walsh, October 17, 2023
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7 min read
Image of silhouette cutouts in a variety of colors and genders.
FotografiaBasica/iStock/Getty
School & District Management What the Research Says Researchers Used AI to Rezone School Districts. Here's What They Found
The experiment created more diverse schools, while cutting students' travel time.
Sarah D. Sparks, September 7, 2023
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3 min read
Kanya Redd, 15, explores an exhibit on segregation at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Visitor's Center on April 18, 2023 in Atlanta. The new cultural exchange initiative is sponsored by Martha's Table, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit committed to expanding opportunity and economic mobility. Approximately 75% of the participants traveled by plane for the first time to get to Atlanta.
Kanya Redd, 15, explores an exhibit on segregation at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Visitor's Center on April 18, 2023 in Atlanta. A new initiative is aiming to combine advocacy and legal strategies to increase school funding and support efforts to create more racially and socioeconomically balanced schools.
Nicole Craine/AP Images for Martha's Table
Education Funding Meet the New Group Promising to Tackle School Funding and Segregation Together
The group aims to boost litigation, research, and advocacy to support diverse, well-resourced public schools.
Mark Lieberman, June 19, 2023
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7 min read
Dennis K. Bordley, 6, right, one of the first two black children at a previously segregated all-white school, Caesar Rodney Elementary School in Camden-Wyoming, Del., strides along with hand in pocket on the way to first grade, Sept. 9, 1959.
Dennis K. Bordley, 6, right, one of the first two Black children at a previously segregated all-white school in Camden-Wyoming, Del., makes his way to 1st grade on Sept. 9, 1959. Public schools remain deeply segregated almost 70 years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation.
Bill Ingraham/AP
Equity & Diversity Public Schools Are Still Segregated. But These Tools Can Help
Data show that racial and socioeconomic segregation persist, but districts may be able to seek federal help to address it.
Eesha Pendharkar, June 7, 2023
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4 min read
Harry Briggs stands in front of the Scott's Branch School in Summerton, S.C., May 8, 1979. In 1950, Briggs filed a school desegregation lawsuit, seeking equal schools and pay for teachers. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional.
Harry Briggs stands in front of the Scott's Branch School in Summerton, S.C., May 8, 1979. In 1950, Briggs filed a school desegregation lawsuit, seeking equal schools and pay for teachers. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional.
Lou Krasky/AP
Law & Courts Should 'Brown v. Board of Education' Be Renamed? The Debate, Explained
Descendants contend the companion case Briggs v. Elliott was unfairly bumped from the top of the historic decision.
Mark Walsh, June 5, 2023
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11 min read
Conceptual image of two circles of influence, with one much bigger than the other.
ajijchan/iStock/Getty and Laura Baker/EdWeek
School Choice & Charters Opinion White Parents Say They Want Diverse Schools, But Will They Send Their Kids?
Racial stereotypes and reluctance to be in a racial minority are part of the calculus of how white parents choose schools.
Kathleen Hayes & Cassandra Kaczocha, May 22, 2023
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5 min read
This May 8, 1964 file photo shows Linda Brown Smith standing in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan. The refusal of the public school to admit Brown in 1951, then nine years old, because she is black, led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the "separate but equal" clause and mandated that schools nationwide must be desegregated.
This May 8, 1964 file photo shows Linda Brown Smith standing in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan. The refusal of the public school to admit Brown in 1951, then nine years old, because she is black, led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the "separate but equal" clause and mandated that schools nationwide must be desegregated.
AP Photo
Equity & Diversity Educational Inequality: 4 Moments in History That Explain Where We Are Today
A new Columbia University report highlights how inequality was embedded in the creation of public education in the United States.
Ileana Najarro, March 20, 2023
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5 min read
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