Mississippi Town Must Desegregate Schools After 50 Year Battle & Rosa Parks fable

[Jeffersons Ghost]

"Delaying desegregation obligations is both unacceptable and unconstitutional”
Correction appended, May 17

A federal court ordered a Mississippi town to combine its two high schools and middle schools on Friday in order to finally desegregate the school district after a five-decade legal battle.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ordered that the two high schools in Cleveland, Miss. should be consolidated into one high school immediately, calling the sustained segregation a decision a “burden” that “deprived generations of students of the constitutionally-guaranteed right of an integrated education.” The court rejected two alternate proposals presented by the district, and instead ordered the district to consolidate a mostly-black middle school and high school with the mostly-white ones, effectively ending segregation in this town of 12,000 people more than 50 years after Brown vs Board of Education. The district has about 3,700 students who are 66% black, and 30% white.

A lawyer for the district told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger that they are still reviewing the 96-page decision and are deciding whether to appeal. http://time.com/4338136/cleveland-mississippi-desegregate-schools/

The video link furnished in this Opening Post differs from the short movie offered in TIME Magazine. It is time to change this "separate but equal doctrine" in media. Instead of challenging the the video, let's challenge this quote: “deprived generations of students of the constitutionally-guaranteed right of an integrated education.” All people better begin challenging subtle wording, integrated is not the same word as equal!

[bonzo925]

1. so what exactly is the district doing

that violates civil rights? I mean its not like blacks who want to attend the majority white school are told they aren't allowed to attend or live there. Now if they are being denied, then yes desegregation is necessary. But if it reflects residential patterns then its harder to prove (unless there being denied the right to live somewhere).

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. Did you know Mississippi is over 40% black with most politcal postions held by white Republicans?

Alabama is about the same voter ratio. Why aren't there more black Democrat senators and congresspeople elected in those two states?

[bonzo925]

3. unfortunately it has to do with the whites

being almost as republican as the blacks are democrats. Mississippi does have a dem AG though.

[1939]

4. It depends on how they are distributed

If white = GOP and black = Dem in Mississippi, and the population is equally distributed, then there might well be few blacks/Dems elected. If blacks are concentrated in a few areas, then there will be black/Dems elected from those areas. We have districts by population with "first past the post" elections and not "proportional representation".