HARTFORD, CT–Sheff Movement Coalition co-chairs Elizabeth Horton Sheff and Jim Boucher give remarks at a 3/27 gathering to celebrate the contributions and achievements of Martha Stone and Philip Tegeler, both of whom have played a key role in Sheff v. O'Neill over the years.

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

APPRECIATION FOR JENNA ROBERSON

It is with much sadness that we announce the departure of our Communications Manager, Jenna Roberson, this week. Jenna joined the NCSD staff in August 2022 as a Communications Consultant. Her impact on NCSD was clear from the beginning, and during her tenure she increased the coalition's communications capacity significantly. Many of NCSD's accomplishments over the past few years–both big and small–simply would not have been possible without Jenna's help. She played a key role in the development of NCSD's fact sheets, shepherded two issues of Poverty & Race, helped organize a strategy session related to the Students for Fair Admissions case, and created communications plans for all major NCSD publications. Most recently, she led the way in planning NCSD's 15th anniversary celebration and our State of Integration–Live! session at #NCSD2025. Her proudest accomplishment, though, is the redesign of NCSD's website, which was recently completed.

Jenna has been integral to NCSD's work over the last few years, and she will be deeply missed. We are excited to see where her professional journey takes her and know she'll continue to shine!

If you'd like to stay in touch with Jenna, you can reach her at jenna@learnlivetogether.org.

SEE YOU IN NASHVILLE?

NCSD Director Gina Chirichigno will be attending the Magnet Schools of America conference in Nashville, TN from April 7-10. Say hello if you are there!

LEGAL & POLICY UPDATES

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• Why the Court Hit the Brakes on School Desegregation (The New Yorker, March 31) - "The proposed remedy in Milliken was interdistrict, and the Court was not inclined to cross district lines. It entrenched the concept of the neighborhood school."
• Civil rights groups say push to dismantle Education Department will undo hard-won gains (AP, March 27) - "Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement that the White House’s argument that abolishing the department would empower states and localities to better respond to their respective communities is a 'fabricated justification' that 'harkens back to a period of legalized school segregation.'”
• A Wave of New Legislation Aims to Ban DEI in Public Schools (EdWeek, March 26) -"As President Donald Trump’s administration has set out to eradicate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools and universities, a growing number of state legislators have taken up the same cause—introducing bills that would ban school districts from maintaining DEI offices, hiring DEI coordinators, or requiring students or faculty to participate in related trainings. Proposed legislation in at least six states echoes the 'divisive concepts' laws that at least 18 states have on the books, which prohibit schools from teaching anything that could be interpreted as 'race or sex stereotyping.'”
• Did You Know: America Closed Schools And Passed 450+ Laws To Block Racial Integration (Essence, March 22) - "Georgia Gov. Herman E. Talmadge liked to portray himself as a champion of education who’d built hundreds of new schools, many of them for Black children. When it came to integration, however, Mr. Talmadge said he would sooner end public education in Georgia than allow Black children to attend school with white children."
• Picture book biographies introduce children to Toni Morrison and Ruby Bridges (NPR, March 7) - "[R]uby Bridges tells her own story in an autobiographical picture book. In I Am Ruby Bridges, she recounts her experience as the first Black child to desegregate an all white school in 1960."
• Opinion: Standing Up to the New Segregationists (Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 24) - "Race-conscious policies were created to counter the hoarding of resources by people who had written into law racist policies of exclusion. These [executive] orders are from a new brand of segregationists—ones who are committed to rolling back civil rights. When universities comply, they become part of the new segregationists."

Alabama -

• Birdie Mae Davis, civil rights pioneer in Alabama school desegregation, dies (AL.com, March 18) - “Ms. Davis’s name became synonymous with the lawsuit in the federal district court and the struggle for equal educational rights in Mobile, AL. Over 34 years, the federal lawsuit took on a life of its own as the state’s largest district worked to dismantle segregation and achieve unitary status. Its resolution had lasting impacts across Mobile County.”

Louisiana -

• The Griffins worked on school desegregation, voting rights in Plaquemines Parish (Verite News New Orleans, March 24) - "The Griffins also worked to desegregate public schools. They focused on integrating the all-white Woodlawn High School on the parish’s east bank. 'Because of their work, their home was bombed in 1963,' the Times-Picayune states. 'Three years later, they would send two of their 11 children to integrate Belle Chasse High School.'”

Massachusetts -

• 5-Year-Old Sarah Roberts Resisted Segregation 100 Years Before Brown v. Board of Education (Teen Vogue, March 28) - "When learning about integration in American public schools, most of our education starts with the 1954 Supreme Court Case Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas....However, the fight for school desegregation had actually been in the works for over 100 years. In 1849, one family took on segregation in Boston, laying early groundwork for that Supreme Court victory nearly a century later."

Michigan -

• Detroit’s attempt to improve its schools was hamstrung by redlining (Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 25) - "In her thorough, compelling summary of the 41-day trial, Adams shows how the plaintiffs painstakingly established that school segregation was primarily a result of residential segregation....The attorneys cited restrictive covenants that prevented the sales of homes to Black people, redlining, mortgage lending discrimination, and segregation in public housing. The evidence ended up revealing, in the author’s words, 'how northern segregation was created, maintained, and perpetuated.'”

Minnesota -

• How one Spring Valley woman helped change racial attitudes in America - (Post Bulletin, March 30) - "The 'South Bend to Spring Valley' book by Eric and Joyce Christianson, which focuses on a Spring Valley, Minnesota, woman and a South Bend, Indiana, man becoming pen pals. She was white and he was Black. Their friendship would eventually become national and international news."

Mississippi -

• The Hudson Sisters: Pillars of strength in war against segregation (Jackson Advocate, March 30) - "Sisters Winson and Dovie Hudson, the trailblazing warriors in the fight for civil rights in Leake County, will soon have a Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker honoring them....After organizing the Leake County NAACP branch, the Hudsons and their fellow members filed the first lawsuit in a rural Mississippi county to end segregated schools in 1961. After the Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation orders of 1954-55, the sisters faced hard choices of actively fighting against the rigid system of segregation or maintaining the Black school that the community had made into one of the best schools in Leake County."

Nevada -

• LETTER: End economic segregation in the schools (Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 22) - "Gov. Joe Lombardo wants to be known for his education initiatives. It’s time he stepped up to the plate on this with money directed specifically for this issue. It’s time he appointed people to the state Board of Education who are 'educational activists' and are willing to act and are not pseudo-principals and superintendents. The Board of Education has been negligent for years in making policy on this issue."

Pennsylvania -

• Historical Marker Now Commemorates Tredyffrin School Segregation Battle (VISTA.Today, March 30) - "A historical marker now commemorates the central role that Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Devon played in the Berwyn School Segregation Case, a historic battle for civil rights in the early 1930s....The case, also known as 'the School Fight,' began in 1932, when Tredyffrin and Easttown school board leaders attempted to impose previously unenforced segregation policies in the districts’ schools."

Tennessee -

• 'Segregation and Democracy Don’t Mix': The 1963 Freedom Marches in downtown Nashville (The Tennessean, March 24) - "'Everyone must join in the protest against segregation before we can clean up Nashville and make it a city without bias,' said the now-late Kelly Miller Smith Sr., who at the time was the president of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council and pastor of First Baptist Colored Church (now First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill). He added that the 'Freedom March' was designed to emphasize that it was a 'people’s cause and not just a leader’s cause.'"

Texas -

• The untold segregation story of Riverside Terrace hits a nerve for my neighbors, past and present - (Houston Chronicle, March 30) - "What is evident from so many responses is that Riverside Terrace, with its large lots, wide streets and brick homes, has left an indelible impression on generations of Houstonians. It's a neighborhood that is both beautiful and flawed, like so many across the nation. It also leaves me wondering where we would be if race and religion didn't matter and if our nation's promise of freedom and the American dream did not coexist with its horrific past of slavery and hate."

CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCES

The Education Law Association is accepting proposals for paper presentations, roundtables, and panels for its national conference. Of note: 2025 marks the 35th anniversary of Missouri v. Jenkins (1990) and the 30th anniversary of Missouri v. Jenkins II (1995), two Supreme Court rulings in a nationally-significant desegregation lawsuit originating in Kansas City. New Deadline: May 1, 2025

Share the info with your LinkedIn networks!

APRIL 3-6

Providence, RI

URBAN Conference

Urban Based Research Action Network

"This year’s conference emphasizes that community engaged research is essentially about shared meaning making which is at the core of co-creating our society and is critically important to a well-functioning democracy. We acknowledge the breadth and diversity of journeys that lead to community engaged research while always holding onto core values."

APRIL 7-10

Nashville, TN

MSA 2025

Magnet Schools of America

"This premier event brings together over 1,400 passionate educators, including magnet school teachers, principals, and administrators from all corners of the country. Expect to be inspired by outstanding keynote speakers who share fresh insights and vision. Dive into a dynamic array of sessions and explore best practices in curriculum and instruction, advanced technology integration, visionary school leadership, and the art of magnet school design. Don't miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and shape the future of education at the forefront of magnet school excellence!"

APRIL 25-26

Charlotte, NC

2025 #TeachingInColor Summit

CREED

"CREED’s #TeachingInColor Summit is a gathering for educators of color from across North Carolina to fellowship, exchange ideas, discover best practices, and uplift each other…and it’s back for a fourth year! The theme of this year’s Summit is Unapologetically Us. The event will feature Educator of the Year awards, a research symposium, wellness sessions, and an exciting keynote presentation by Marc Lamont Hill."

APRIL 29-MAY 2

Palm Springs, CA

2025 BOOST Conference

BOOST Collaborative



"Join the largest, most recognized, and comprehensive global convening for after school, expanded learning, and in and out-of-school time professionals. Set in a retreat-like atmosphere, this annual, extraordinary event will rejuvenate your passion, boost your direction for quality programming and provide tools and resources that will inspire you to create change."

MAY 12-14

Brookyln, NY

Inclusive Practices Institute

RootsConnectED

"The 3 day Inclusive Practices Institute offers teams of 3-5 educators and school leaders the opportunity to share in the exploration of the principles and strategies of inclusive education in order to increase access to general education curriculum, support individual needs and ensure all students are meaningfully included in learning."

MAY 19

Virtual

Protecting Public Education During the Trump Administration

Education Law Center

"ELC’s 16th annual Education Justice Lecture will feature Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), a champion for public education and working families. Congresswoman DeLauro serves as Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, sits on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, and is the Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee...Her keynote remarks will discuss the impact of Trump’s first 100 days in office on public education. Her presentation will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A."

 "Change happens. Change is definitely going to happen, no matter what we plan or expect or hope for or set in place. We will adapt to that change, or we will become irrelevant." –adrienne maree brown