DOJ drops decades-old desegregation school case in Louisiana
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South Plaquemines High School, built with $40.3 million in FEMA funding, shown in September 2013. Photo: Jenny Campora/FEMA/National Archives
The Trump administration has dismissed a half-century-old school desegregation case in Louisiana in a sign that it may aggressively end other school racial desegregation cases long targeted by white conservatives.
Why it matters: The move by the U.S. Justice Department this week follows the Trump administration's reinterpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism," rather than discrimination against people of color.
The big picture: It comes weeks after the Trump administration said the federal government will no longer unequivocally prohibit contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.
- It also follows President Trump's revocation of President Lyndon Johnson's decades-old order on diversity and affirmative action practices in the federal government.
Driving the news: The DOJ said this week that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon had "righted a historical wrong" by "freeing" the Plaquemines Parish School Board of federal oversight.
- "No longer will the Plaquemines Parish School Board have to devote precious local resources over an integration issue that ended two generations ago," Dhillon said in a statement.
- "This is a prime example of neglect by past administrations, and we're now getting America refocused on our bright future."
Zoom in: The mostly-white parish is just south of New Orleans in the southeastern-most edge of the state.
The DOJ did not respond to Axios on what other desegregation cases it's looking to dismiss.
- Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a press release that she intends to pursue closures for additional remaining desegregation cases in the state, but a spokesperson was not immediately able to share a list of what school districts they would affect.
Context: The Johnson administration sued the Plaquemines Parish School Board in 1966, seeking to desegregate its schools, as it did other school districts in the South.
- Those school districts, then led by white segregationists, refused to abide by the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed racial segregation in schools.
- For decades, many of the same school districts remained under federal consent decrees for failing to abide by desegregation orders even as areas and school boards grew more racially diverse.
- White conservatives for decades have complained about the orders and claimed they were federal overreach.
What they're saying: "Louisiana got its act together decades ago, and it is past time to acknowledge how far we have come," said Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Civil Rights Division.
- "America is back, and this Department of Justice is making sure the Civil Rights Division is correcting wrongs from the past and working for all Americans."
Yes, but: Racial segregation in schools across the country has increased dramatically over the last three decades, according to reports and an Axios review of federal data.
- Federal data examined by the UCLA Civil Rights Project and the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University tool reviewed by Axios found that in the years after Gen X left public schools, the districts began to resegregate and today have returned to 1960s segregation levels.
- The resegregation of America's public schools coincides with the rise of charter schools and school choice options, and as civil rights groups have turned away from desegregation battles for Black and Latino students.
- Intensely segregated schools, defined as schools with a student population that is more than 90% nonwhite, have fewer resources, more teacher shortages, higher student-to-school counselor ratios and fewer AP class options.
Tim DeRoche, president of the nonpartisan education advocacy group Available to All, said the desegregation orders did little to stop districts from creating boundaries to keep poor children out of high-performing schools.
- "Desegregation cases have not been effective at opening up access to these elite, coveted schools, because the Supreme Court and the rest of the courts have said that it's perfectly legal to keep kids out of schools."
Between the lines: More than 130 school systems are under DOJ desegregation orders, according to records in a court filing this year, per the AP.
- Most are in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, with smaller numbers in states like Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina.
- Desegregation orders encompass a range of directives, like student assignment policies, faculty hiring practices, disciplinary procedures and educational resources.
