Creating Roadblocks To Opportunity
There are other de jure forms of segregation that have been and continue to be upheld by the United States government and its courts. Although the United States Supreme Court can be given credit for striking down Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Federal and State governments have often been less than aggressive with integrating schools. Often the three branches have been supportive of creating obstacles, specifically with lack of busing, to keep children of color away from white children.
Nixon, who just before had watched the Florida Democratic Presidential Primary that was taken by George Wallace, an unapologetic segregationist and racist, in a landslide victory, gave a moratorium on busing and explained why in front of the entire nation. Nixon said he wanted the nation “to establish a reasonable national standard” and that he felt busing brought about “unequal treatment among regions, states and local school districts.” (25) Although Nixon had never believed in busing, the timing of this was nothing short of tactical. With an upcoming election, he had just been given word of a Straw Poll where 74 percent of voters said they were against busing, and now having seen George Wallace, an open racist, gaining ground throughout the South, Nixon knew he needed to speak openly in regard to his position on the matter.
Moreover, Nixon put these words into action. He delayed desegregation plans in Mississippi, drawing complaints from over 60 civil rights lawyers. Nixon lost this battle, overturned in Alexander v. Holmes County and ordered by the Supreme Court to terminate dual school systems at once and operate unitary schools. (26) Even with this, the public pushed Nixon to do more. Nixon was constantly provoked toward more action, receiving over 5,000 letters and telegrams from the anti-busing establishment. “One father implored the White House to come to the rescue of the silent majority who may not be silent much longer.” (27) Throughout his tenure as president, Nixon felt pressure from this faction, a group that he often sided with and supported before he left office.
Sadly, the pressure to end busing did not end with the executive branch. Probably the most powerful decision that supported white flight and continued the trend of school segregation was Milliken v. Bradley, a case that was elevated from a lower court case in Detroit to the Supreme Court that resulted in one of the greater injustices of the 20th century. The case rejected busing to desegregate schools and provided a mortal wound to the efforts to purposefully create policies that ensured schools would not have an overwhelming level of integration. The 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court made the claim that "with no showing of significant violation by the 53 outlying school districts and no evidence of any interdistrict violation or effect," the district court's remedy was "wholly impermissible" and not justified by Brown v. Board of Education. (28) Furthermore, the Court noted that desegregation, "in the sense of dismantling a dual school system," did not require "any particular racial balance in each 'school, grade or classroom.'" (29) The Court also emphasized the importance of local control over the operation of schools. (30) By doing so, it stopped city schools from sending students out into the suburbs. It also paved the way for a mass exodus of both white and blue-collar workers into the suburbs who freed themselves of forced integration. This eventually led to many schools with African American students becoming 75 to 90 percent of the entire student body, most of whom were economically disadvantaged. (31) While busing wasn’t easy and was never supposed to be, it was intended to give equitable and just opportunities to people who didn’t have them. However, the Court’s ruling seemed to realign with the Plessy v. Ferguson verdict, reaffirming that blacks were never meant to be “peers” to whites.
Yet there were more strikes against desegregation to come in Board of Oklahoma City v. Dowwell (1991). In an aggressive strategy to move the demographic composition of schools in Oklahoma, the school system organized a massive busing program. The program was called “The Finger Plan.” In 1977, the support for the plan was lost at the district court level. Shortly after, the board created the Student Reassignment Plan (SRP) which decreased the amount of busing in hopes of reducing the amount of time black students were on buses, thus significantly reducing the amount of students who had previously been bused and returning them to their original schools. In Kansas City, Missouri, the school district wanted to increase taxes to increase revenue to support continued desegregation, with much of the funding going to transportation. Although the lower court ruled in favor of the tax, the Supreme Court said that it was unconstitutional.
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