CLEP American Government, Chapter 25

School desegregation

School desegregation: remedy, enforcement, and resistance School desegregation is the institutional work of dismantling a school system that government separated by law. Brown I announced the constitutional rule; Brown II placed much of the remedial task in federal district courts. Those courts had to examine local facts, order workable plans, monitor compliance, and respond when officials substituted delay for action. Resistance made federal enforcement decisive. During the Little Rock crisis, Arkansas officials attempted to block nine Black students from entering Central High School despite a federal order. President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent federal troops to protect the students. In Cooper v. Aaron, the Supreme Court rejected the claim that state officials could disregard its constitutional interpretation. The episode connected all five chapter layers: constitutional rule, judicial remedy, executive enforcement, movement courage, and local resistance. Later decisions clarified what a remedy may require. In Green v. County School Board, the Court rejected a "freedom-of-choice" plan that left the old dual system substantially intact; formal neutrality was not enough when the constitutional duty was to produce meaningful dismantling. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg approved tools such as revised attendance zones and transportation when reasonably necessary to cure official segregation. Milliken v. Bradley, however, generally barred a remedy crossing district lines without proof that an interdistrict violation caused the interdistrict condition. Remedial power follows the proven governmental violation rather than racial imbalance in the abstract.