Table Of ContentMetropolitan
Desegregation
Metropolitan
Desegregation
Edited by
Robert L. Green
University of the District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.
With the assistance of
Frances S. Thomas
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Metropolitan desegregation.
Includes bibliographies and index.
I. School integration - Delaware - New Castle County - Addresses, essays, lectures. 1.
Green, Robert Lee. II. Thomas, Frances S.
LC214.22.D3M48 1985 370.19/342 85-12032
ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-4945-7 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-4943-3
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-4943-3
Research for Chapters 2,5,7 and 8 w:ts supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation,
Division of Social Sciences. Special thanks are due Dr. Bruce Williams, Assistant Director for
the Social Sciences Division, for his encouragement and support.
Some of the material in Chapter 9 was abstracted from "Third-Generation School Desegrega
tion Issues: An Agenda for the Future," by R. Griffore, in Procedures and Pilot Research to
Develop an Agenda for Desegregation Studies (1981), which was funded entirely by the U.S.
Department of Education. The Department of Education disclaims any official endorsement
of the materials, and no product endorsement should be inferred.
Parts of Chapter 8 are adapted from material that appeared in The Urban Review, Volume 13,
Number 2, Summer 1981, and Volume 16, Number 2, 1984.
© 1985 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
This book is dedicated to the memory of our colleague, Rick D. Rapaport,
whose joyous, creative, productive life (1954-1985) was dedicated to the
pursuit of justice, peace, and human dignity, and to a better future for the
victims of oppression and discrimination all over the world - fellow human
beings who need from each of us the kind of commitment, caring, and love
exemplified in Rick's short life. Rick's work lives on in the lives of the many
children of many colors who are showing us the way to make America
work, and their parents, teachers, and school administrators who dare to
believe in the American ideal for which desegregation stands. To them this
book is also dedicated.
Contri butors
JOE T. DARDEN Dean, Urban Affairs Programs, Michigan State University,
East Lansing, Michigan
ROBERT L. GREEN President, University of the District of Columbia, Wash
ington, District of Columbia
ROBERT J. GRIFFORE Department of Family and Child Ecology, Michigan State
University, East Lansing, Michigan
MARGARET A. PARSONS Greater Flint Health Maintenance Organization, Flint,
Michigan
DIANA PEARCE Center for National Policy Review, Catholic University School
of Law, Washington, District of Columbia
JULIE SCHMIDT Department of Educational Studies, University of Delaware,
Newark, Delaware
JOHN H. SCHWEITZER Urban Affairs Programs, Michigan State University,
East Lansing, Michigan
CASSANDRA A. SIMMONS Urban Affairs Programs, Affirmative Action Grad
uate Financial Assistance Program, Michigan State University, East Lan
sing, Michigan
FRANCES S. THOMAS Urban Affairs Programs, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, Michigan
MEYER WEINBERG Horace Mann Bond Center for Equal Education, University
of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
vii
Preface
Most of the findings in this book are based on the work of a team of researchers
from Urban Affairs Programs at Michigan State University. From 1976 to 1981,
the team observed the progress of school desegregation in metropolitan Wil
mington, Delaware, which encompasses New Castle County. The project was
made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Division of Social
Sciences.
Metropolitan desegregation is a strategy deserving of national attention
because this country's black population has become increasingly concentrated
within central cities. Desegregation solutions must be found that encompass
America's white suburbs as well as its urban areas.
In a 1977 statement, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called metro
politan school desegregation "the last frontier to be crossed in the long judicial
effort to make equal educational opportunity . . . a living reality." Moreover,
the National Task Force on Desegregation Strategies concluded in 1979,
The simple demographic fact is that many large city school districts cannot
desegregate by themselves. For children in such districts, the best hope for attending
a desegregated school lies in the implementation of metropolitan desegregation strat
egies--i.e., desegregation plans which do not stop at the city line, but rather encom
pass at least some of the surrounding suburban areas. (p. 1)
The Michigan State University research team began its investigation in New
Castle County, Delaware, after a three-judge federal district court ruled that area
schools were illegally segregated between districts.! The court determined that
governmental action affecting the entire region had contributed to the racial
separation of the primarily black urban core from its ring of nearly all-white
suburbs. The court consolidated Wilmington and its surrounding suburban school
districts, and then ordered countywide busing to desegregate the schools through
out the metropolitan area.
In its 5-year study, the research team assessed the attitudes and academic
achievement levels of selected students as well as the attitudes of selected teachers
and parents in New Castle County. In four of the nine chapters of this book,
members of the MSU team present the data from this case study and discuss the
conclusions that were drawn. Other writers from other institutions analyze pre-
IEvans v. Buchanan, 416 F. Supp. 328 (1976).
ix
x PREFACE
vious research on school desegregation in order to provide a context for the
Wilmington/New Castle County study.
In the first chapter, the legal and educational history of school segregation
and desegregation is set forth. The position advocated is that of the United States
Commission on Civil Rights, which stated in 1979 that "no more important
challenge faces the Nation than the elimination of all discrimination from our
public schools" (p. viii).
In the second chapter, the history of school desegregation in New Castle
County is reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the political context within which
desegregation occurred and the political waves that flowed in its wake. The
analysis is based on media coverage of the desegregation process and on inter
views with many of the participants.
In Chapter 3, educational components in desegregation remedies are de
scribed. Increasingly, the judicial system has come to recognize the need to alter
the policies of desegregating districts in order to help undereducated minority
children catch up, and to counteract the deleterious effects of past segregated
schooling. The author analyzes the legal justification, the educational need, and
the effectiveness of the various components.
In Chapter 4, research findings are presented on the relationship between
residential and educational segregation and the effects of school desegregation
on this relationship. The author of this chapter has undertaken ground-breaking
research on the effects of neighborhood racial composition on racial attitudes
and on attitudes about school desegregation.
Attitudes about race and education, as expressed by students and parents
from New Castle County neighborhoods of varying racial compositions, are
analyzed in Chapter 5. The data show that neighborhood racial composition
accounts for differences in attitudes not accounted for by race per se.
Chapter 6 presents a summary of selected research on relationships between
school desegregation and academic achievement. The author notes that results
vary depending on the methodology of the research and the sincerity of the
desegregation effort. The conclusion is presented that successful desegregation
can improve academic achievement for black and other minority students without
inflicting educational damage on white students.
The achievement data from the New Castle County study are analyzed in
Chapter 7. The findings indicate that for both black and white pupils there was
a definite increase in achievement after desegregation. Achievement gains were
generally greater for black pupils; for pupils at the elementary level, both black
and white; and for all pupils in the area of mathematics.
In Chapter 8, the author examines the attitudes of New Castle County
students and parents about race, schools, and education, before and after school
desegregation. She observes that the most positive attitudes about race were
evidenced at the earliest grades, suggesting that younger children are more likely
than their older siblings to learn positive racial attitudes through school deseg-
PREFACE xi
regation. Differences in attitudes and attitudinal changes related to variables such
as race, sex, and socioeconomic status are also noted.
In the final chapter, recent trends in desegregation research are traced,
focusing on the family's role in children's educational achievement in deseg
regated schools. The author also discusses new directions for research on edu
cation and desegregation, and suggests an ecological perspective as a framework
for conceptualizing school desegregation and organizing future research.
It is our hope that the information provided in this book will enlarge public
understanding of desegregation in general, and metropolitan desegregation in
particular. Students of America's progress toward the goal of equal educational
opportunities for all children may find the data from the study of metropolitan
desegregation in Wilmington/New Castle County, Delaware, to be of particular
interest. The authors share the conviction that integrated education is necessary
to prepare children-of all races-for full participation in our multiracial world.
This study of metropolitan desegregation could not have been completed
without the assistance of numerous colleagues. Thanks are due Rick D. Rapaport
for excellent researching services; Dr. Joe T. Darden for coordinating tasks; and
Barbara Gaffield, Roberta Grange, Shirley Hoksbergen, and Marie McNutt for
typing the manuscript. Special appreciation is due Dr. Frances Thomas for her
services in critiquing and editing the various chapters. On behalf of the authors,
I want to express our gratitude for the assistance of these persons.
ROBERT L. GREEN
Contents
CHAPTER 1
DESEGREGATION 1
Robert L. Green
The Need to Desegregate American Education ..................... 1
Segregation ................................................. 3
Desegregation ............................................... 10
Metropolitan Desegregation .................................... 15
Opposition to School Desegregation ............................. 25
The Future of School Desegregation ............................. 31
References .................................................. 34
CHAPTER 2
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN NEW CASTLE COUNTY,
DELAWARE: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ..••..•..•.•••..•..•.• 37
Julie Schmidt
Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Evans v. Buchanan-Liability and Remedy ....................... 42
Public Bodies and Desegregation Plans ........................... 42
Pupil Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
First Three Years of Desegregation .............................. 49
Ancillary Relief and Financial Turmoil ........................... 51
State Legislature ............................................. 54
Student Code of Conduct ...................................... 55
Community Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Summary................................................... 59
References .................................................. 59
xiii
