Residential segregation: The state and constitutional conflict in American urban areas

Abstract

In 1896, the US Supreme Court decision Plessey v. Ferguson deemed that the establishment of separate school systems for whites and blacks did not violate the absolute equality of the two races before the law. Thus, the doctrine of separate but equal prevailed in the provision of public elementary, secondary, and tertiary education in southern states until 13 parents brought a class-action suit against the segregated Topeka, Kansas school district. The landmark decision Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954) ruled separate but equal unconstitutional in the case of education, outlawing de jure segregation. Yet, it took a number of years and additional court cases to compel districts to integrate schools and actually dismantle the dual system. Recent Supreme Court decisions do raise the possibility of resegregation going forward, as they narrow the circumstances in which race can be considered in enrolment decisions. In combination with the increasing popularity of various forms of school choice, the changing legal environment will likely erode some of the desegregation gains achieved over the past half century.This article attempts to summarize what we know about the impact of Brown on academic and economic outcomes for blacks. The first section briefly describes the legal history that established the environment governing the allocation of students among schools and the main types of plans used to desegregate schools. The next section documents changes over time in school-enrolment patterns, focusing both on the ways in which districts allocate students among schools and the distribution of students among districts. The penultimate section discusses evidence of desegregation-program effects on white enrolment and the final section discusses the evidence of the effects of school desegregation and racial composition on academic and economic outcomes.