Case Study Of The Consolidation Of Meredith V. Jefferson County Board Of Education

The Consolidation of Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and The Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and the Implications on Brown v. Board of Education

The Civil Rights Era is an important piece of the United States history. The movement was fueled by a push for equality amongst all, but particularly for those people of color. The landmark trial of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas led the way for a change in the understanding of what all men are created equal meant. The court decision in 1954 Brown trial was unanimous that segregation in public schools is inherently unequal. This therefore overturned the earlier implemented court decision in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson trial that

The court case Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education identified that schools in Louisville, Kentucky were using voluntary integration plans in their public schools (Smith, 2008, p. 303). The main complaint was filed by a white mother who wanted her child to be transferred to a kindergarten in a school closer to home. Her complaint to the schools was denied because of the need to keep the color ratio matched to the racial guidelines (Greenhouse, 2007). Many other complaints similar to this one existed as well since many parents were concerned about the distance their children had to ride to school and how long it was taking. The Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 case was brought to court by a nonprofit created by parents in order to fight the school assignment plans used in the schools of Seattle. (Greenhouse, 2007). When the two cases got to the Supreme Court they were consolidated in order to make one decision that applied to all public

The ruling will force districts to rethink their programs and take race out of the picture by using more broad factors. In fact, Justice Kennedy offered up more appropriate options for the schools to use one of which was racial gerrymandering (Totenberg & Kaufman, 2007). Gerrymandering is an occurrence that has taken place in politics for many years, but when it takes place for educational purposes it can have a big impact on attendance zones and diversity. Kennedy’s suggestion of this would allow schools to redraw the district lines for the purpose of increasing diversity and decreasing racial isolation. This would be a less intrusive way of assigning schools to students without targeting them based specifically on their race. Other substitutions that Kennedy offered included building schools in areas that would pull from diverse areas, using recruitment strategies and funding programs that could increase diversity. (Gutierrez & Rossow, 2009, p. 62). To Kennedy these options were better than what the schools were using at present and would not target students specifically based on race or use it as a defining factor. According to Gutierrez and Rossow (2009), there are three modifications that districts must make to their policies. Those modifications include