Most Americans support school integration—and this is true across traditional racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and partisan divides. NCSD's new fact sheet summarizes findings from three school integration polls, conducted by The Washington Post-Ipsos, Brown’s Promise, and The Century Foundation, and offers key takeaways and sample messages to help communicate the findings. 

POLICY UPDATES

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

NCSD's new report, “The Impact of Brown v. Board of Education on Black Teachers Outside of the South, 1934-1974,” by Zoë Burkholder, traces the complex history of how Brown impacted Black teachers in the North. Burkholder finds that, unlike those in the South, Black teachers in the North generally did not lose their jobs directly or indirectly due to Brown. The story is much more complicated.

As we continue to reflect on what is required to truly fulfill the promise of Brown, we invite you to read this timely and insightful report that offers important nuance to the conversation on the impact of the Court's decision on Black educators and what to do about it.

Also, check out the executive summary, press release, Poverty & Race article, and help us amplify this important report by engaging with us on social media and sharing information about the report with colleagues and friends.

FULFILLING BROWN'S PROMISE: A STATE POLICY AGENDA

On the 50th anniversary of Milliken v. Bradley, Brown's Promise released its state policy agenda for addressing school segregation and inequitable educational funding. This detailed framework builds upon a recent “Call to Action” document developed in partnership with NCSD and the Education Law Center. The agenda highlights five key areas for state leaders:

1. Fully and Fairly Funding Public Schools
2. Rethinking School District Lines
3. Ensuring Integration and Resource Equity Within Districts and Schools
4. Fostering Positive Student Experiences in Integration Efforts
5. Creating an Ecosystem of Integration and Resource Equity

Read the press release, Chalkbeat article, and Twitter thread.

We just returned from an invigorating summer symposium hosted by Magnet Schools of America (MSA). Some highlights:

• NCSD held a focus group on Strengthening and Supporting Magnet School Policy and Practice through Student Voice and Engagement , facilitated by PRRAC intern John Square III, NCSD intern Margo Pedersen, and NCSD director Gina Chirichigno
• University of Maryland Professor Ariel Bierbaum presented on School Integration, Transportation Access, and Mobility Justice
• Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity's Milly Arbaje-Thomas led Building Meaningful Relationships with Alumni: METCO's Journey
• We heard remarks from Lakeisha Steele from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and Monique Dixon of University of Maryland's Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law

BROWN AT 70 AND THE ROLE OF MAGNET SCHOOLS IN PROMOTING INTEGRATION

THANK YOU, PHIL TEGELER!

After two decades of leadership at PRRAC, Phil Tegeler will be stepping down as Executive Director later this year. At NCSD, we express deep gratitude for Phil as a leader, litigator, and policy advocate. He played a pivotal role in NCSD's founding and has remained a faithful steward of the coalition's work for over a decade. We simply would not be where we are without Phil's perseverance, expertise, and support. Phil: we are very grateful for all you have done for PRRAC, NCSD, and the nation's ongoing civil rights movement as a whole! You have earned a very relaxing and joyful retirement, but we still have a few months of hard work ahead of us! :)

PRRAC is conducting a national search for its next executive director – see the announcement and help spread the word!

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

Dozens of civil rights, social justice, and advocacy organizations, including NCSD members Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., and Southern Poverty Law Center, joined the the Freedom to Learn campaign. The campaign pushes back "against the widespread attempts to limit antiracist education in U.S. schools and undermine democracy." Also, this week is the 5th Annual Critical Race Theory Summer School in Nashville, TN (in-person and on Zoom) where attendees will receive tools to better understand and ​prevent attacks on voting, affirmative ​action, books and curricula, and other racial and social justice advancements. Read this Diverse: Issues In Higher Education article to learn more.

CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCE LIST

• Former White House appointee and civil rights attorney Monique Dixon has been named the inaugural executive director of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. 

• "A recent study published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities reveals a significant link between increasing school segregation and persistent racial health disparities in the United States. Researchers found that, while residential segregation has remained largely unchanged from 1991 to 2020, school segregation has increased. This rise in school segregation correlates with higher levels of racial health disparities." Read the full article and study.

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• Opinion: School desegregation never happened, and no one noticed (The Hill, July 1) - “This year’s July Fourth fireworks are extra special, combined with celebration of another landmark moment in American history. This year is the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s most significant ruling in at least a century—that it is both wrong and illegal to have separate schools for white and Black children.”
• Black leaders commemorate 60th anniversary of Civil Rights Act (The Hill, July 2) - “Former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964. The law prohibited discrimination in public places, called for school integration and outlawed employment discrimination. The act also dismantled Jim Crow laws, including the 'separate but equal' doctrine that had been upheld in the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.”
• Opinion: ‘Brown’ Devastated the Black Teaching Force. It’s Long Past Time to Fix That (The 74, July 9) - “70 years after landmark school desegregation ruling, all students must have the chance to learn from diverse, effective educators.”
• White supremacy with a law degree: How do we escape "The Originalism Trap"? (Salon, July 14) - “In her new book, ‘The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back,’ Madiba K. Dennie critiques the legal doctrine known as ‘originalism,’ calling it a movement born out of opposition to the school desegregation mandated by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision.”

Arkansas -

• Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District asks federal judge for unitary status in desegregation case (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 1) - “Just days away from completing the construction of six replacement campuses in six years, the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District on Monday asked a federal judge to declare the district fully unitary and release it from any further court monitoring of its desegregation efforts.”

Arizona -

• Arizona Justices Absolve State of Desegregation Tax Obligations (Bloomberg Law, July 22) - “Arizona isn’t required to reimburse counties for school desegregation compliance expenses that exceed the state constitution’s 1% limit on residential property taxes...The legislature explicitly removed school districts’ authority to budget for desegregation expenses out of their primary tax levy, the court said. As a result, homeowners will see an increase in their property tax bills.”

California -



• California school district considers suing companies to pay for reparations (Washington Examiner, July 1) - “The task force wrote that “it is clear that school desegregation, though an important step forward, did not resolve the impact of the legacy of chattel slavery on students in BUSD. Subsequent efforts to address these issues have also fallen short.”
• Orange County family's fight for equality could soon be taught in California schools (Spectrum News 1, July 11) - “‘California students would benefit from learning the historical link between Mendez v. Westminster and Brown v. Board of Education,’ said Assembly member Tri Ta. Ta authored AB 1805, which would require the Mendez case to be taught in all California public schools.”

Kansas -



• Opinion: Celebrating Brown v. Board at 70: Hallowed but hollow for too many Kansans (Kansas Reflector, July 2) - “The Legislature also has proposed measures that would limit what historical stories could be taught and discussed, centering the feelings of white students over the circumstances that Black and other minority groups have experienced historically. All of this, but we’re still 'proud' of Brown?”
• Boots on the ground: Topeka superintendent meets families where they are (K-12 Dive, July 25) - "When Tiffany Anderson became the first Black woman superintendent of the 13,000-student, 32-school Topeka Public Schools in Kansas in 2016, her reputation for challenging the status quo preceded her...In Topeka—the school district famously at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 ban on school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education—Anderson has continued to drive results."

Lousiana -



• New Orleans civil rights icon Tessie Prevost dead at 69 (Associated Press, July 22) - "Funeral services will be held Saturday for one of four Black girls who helped integrate New Orleans public schools in 1960. Tessie Prevost Williams, known as one of the “New Orleans Four,” died July 6 following a series of medical complications. She was 69."
• Related: Tessie Prevost, pioneer of Deep South school desegregation, dies at 69; Tessie Prevost Williams, heroine of school desegregation, dies at 69
• St. Martin Parish education officials hold public meetings to explain new school zoning changes from desegregation case (KADN, July 24) - "This change impacts students at seven schools, including St. Martinville High, and is a mandate in accordance with a new federal court ruling in the parish's decades-old school desegregation case."
• Desegregation pioneer Leona Tate preserves civil rights history in New Orleans (WAMU, July 28) - "The former McDonogh 19 Elementary School is now preserved as an interpretive space to teach New Orleans’ civil rights history.The TEP center is named after Leona Tate, Gail Etienne and Tessie Prevost. They’re known as the 'McDonogh 3'—the first three Black girls to integrate the school."

Massachusetts -

• Mass. communities increasingly seek property tax votes to pay for schools, other town services (Boston Globe, July 10) - “Cities and towns across Massachusetts are increasingly turning to voters to override the state’s cap on property tax increases to avoid severe cuts to schools, police, and other services...The boom in overrides is a sign of how local communities and school districts are struggling to keep pace with inflation as they attempt to provide essential services within the constraints of the state’s property tax cap, which limits increases to 2.5 percent annually.”
• Ten years before busing began, Black leaders organized to end school segregation (Bay State Banner, July 10) - “Organizers of the 1964 Freedom Stay Out and experts who studied it reflect on why the movement was successful—and why it took a decade for change to come.”
• Holyoke superintendent explains why city’s schools can’t overcome segregation on their own (Mass Live, July 18) - “The top school official in Holyoke says the district already is using recommendations of a new report that found racial segregation to be widespread and detrimental in schools. But Holyoke can’t solve this problem by itself, said Holyoke Superintendent Anthony Soto.”

Michigan -

• Still segregated and unequal: The reverberations of Milliken v. Bradley in Detroit 50 years later (Chalkbeat Detroit, July 29) - "The ruling, which came 50 years ago this month, has had profound and lasting effects on segregated classrooms in Detroit and across the country. Legal scholars say it eroded the progress made after Brown v. Board of Education, another landmark court decision that declared in 1954 that state-mandated racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional."
• Related: Milliken v. Bradley: 50 years later, teachers across the country reflect on the historic case

Mississippi -

• Mississippi’s Black students more likely to repeat grades: report (WJTV, July 16) - “In 2024, 30 school districts in Mississippi are currently under desegregation orders. The U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Civil Rights Data Collection shows further discrepancies in academic achievement among the state’s students...African Americans make up 58.1% of all students who repeat grades statewide; white students make up 34.2%. Locally, statewide and nationally, African Americans make up a disproportionate amount of those held back statewide and in the metro.”

New Jersey -

• Our schools are more segregated than Alabama’s. So why are NJ voters so blind? | A Q&A (NJ.com, July 10) - “When it comes to segregation, most New Jerseyans don’t see a problem: Just 12 percent of voters say the schools where they live are segregated, and just 19 percent say they want more racial diversity in their neighborhoods, according to a recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University.”
• The original poll can be found here.
• School segregation lawsuit: Both sides ask court to extend mediation deadline (NJ Spotlight News, July 18) - “Mediation continues in a major school segregation lawsuit with interdistrict school choice, magnet schools and charter schools being discussed as potential solutions to desegregate New Jersey public schools, according to recent court filings. As the confidential talks approach their one-year mark, the parties have asked for another three-month extension in recent court filings."

New York -

• WXY partners with parents, teachers, social workers, and policy makers to help desegregate a New York City public school district (Architect’s Newspaper, July 25) - "The improvement started after officials launched the D15 Diversity Plan (D15 Plan) during the 2019–20 school year—a community-based program to integrate D15’s middle schools. WXY designed and led the extensive public engagement process that went into the D15 Plan’s formulation."

North Carolina -

• Op-Ed: Durham Public Schools’ Redistricting Plan Seeks to Rectify Resegregation (Indy Week, July 10) - “Considering the fact that public schools in North Carolina are more segregated now than after the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling in 1954, it’s no wonder that Durham Public Schools (DPS) is taking such bold, purposeful measures with the Growing Together initiative....DPS has called out school resegregation directly and has devised a plan that splits Durham into five regions, creating a student assignment plan where students can attend a neighborhood or magnet school.”
• New Durham school zones target segregation as district rolls out free lunch for all (News and Observer, July 23) - “This is the first year for year-round classes at W.G. Pearson Elementary School in Durham, NC. DPS students were reassigned under Growing Together, a plan intended to make schools in the district more racially and socioeconomically balanced.”

Ohio -

• Local schools still deeply segregated 70 years after Brown v. Board (Dayton Daily News, July 11) - “When the desegregation order was lifted in 2002—after a negotiated settlement with the NAACP—white enrollment in Dayton Public Schools had dropped to less than 27%. As noted above, it’s even lower today.

Tennessee -

• Tennessee governor’s comparison of school choice to civil rights ‘deeply offensive,’ Democrats say (Chalkbeat Tennessee, July 17) - “‘Tennessee has a proud history of leading in the fight for civil rights—from the lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Rides to school integration and labor rights,’ the caucus said. ‘To label a policy that promotes segregation and inequality as a civil rights issue is a grave disservice to the legacy of those who fought for justice in our state.’”
• New book sparks investigation into unsolved bombings from Nashville's desegregation years (The Tennessean, July 23) - “Nashville police are reopening the investigations into three unsolved Civil Rights era bombings a local author believes were perpetrated by a network of racist terrorists in the South while the FBI turned a blind eye...[including] the bombings of Hattie Cotton Elementary School.”
• Related: Book Prompts Investigation Into Nashville’s Unsolved Civil Rights-Era Bombings 

Texas -

• Historic segregated school in Marfa becomes newest national park (KUT News, July 18) - “The move marks the final step in establishing the new historic site at the onetime segregated school after Congress approved a bipartisan bill in 2022 creating the site. The school grounds will be dedicated to exploring the history of Mexican American school segregation across the Southwest, a yearslong effort initially spearheaded by Blackwell alumni themselves.”
• Related: Marfa’s Blackwell School formally established as new national historic site; Newest National Park Service site a stark reminder of painful era in American history

Virginia -

• Moton Museum takes another step toward World Heritage list (Farmville Herald, July 20) - “The Moton Museum falls into the second section, three sites concerning the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark ruling on school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education. The Moton Museum used to be Moton High School, a segregated school for black children.”

“The legal system can force open doors, and sometimes, even knock down walls, but it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me.”

–Thurgood Marshall, Liberty Medal acceptance speech delivered July 4, 1992

Founded in 2009, the National Coalition on School Diversity is a cross-sector network of 50+ national civil rights organizations, university-based research centers, and state and local coalitions working to expand support for school integration. NCSD supports its members in designing, enacting, implementing, and uplifting PK-12 public school integration policies and practices so we may build cross-race/cross-class relationships, share power and resources, and co-create new realities.

NCSD MEMBERSHIP

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund * Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund * American Civil Liberties Union * Poverty & Race Research Action Council * Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law * Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund * Magnet Schools of America * One Nation Indivisible * Southern Poverty Law Center * Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School * Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA * Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College, Columbia University * University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights * Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University * Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley * Education Rights Center, Howard University School of Law * Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School * Education Law Center * New York Appleseed * Sheff Movement Coalition * Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation * ERASE Racism * Chicago Lawyers' Committee * Empire Justice Center * IntegrateNYC * Intercultural Development Research Association * Reimagining Integration: Diverse and Equitable Schools Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education * Institute for Social Progress at Wayne County Community College District * Center on Law, Inequaliy and Metropolitan Equity at Rutgers Law School * Integrated Schools * The Office of Transformation and Innovation at the Dallas Independent School District * Live Baltimore * Maryland Equity Project at the University of Maryland College of Education * Center for Education and Civil Rights at Penn State College of Education * National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector * Diversity Education Network at Rutgers University * Being Black at School * UnifiEd * The Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy * Public Advocacy for Kids * The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools * The School Diversity Notebook * Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. * Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. (METCO) * Learn Together, Live Together * Beloved Community * Learning Policy Institute * Public School Forum of North Carolina * The Bell * North Carolina Justice Center * The Bridges Collaborative at The Century Foundation * SproutFive * Oneonta For Equality * NestQuest Houston * Metis Associates