School Integration Policies in Northern Cities

Abstract

Abstract De facto segregation of Negro students in the schools of the cities of the North and West has different origins from the school segregation of the South, and possibly different consequences. It is only one of the factors contributing to the gap in achievement between Negro and white students. Nevertheless, it is the most visible factor and symbolizes to Negroes all the conditions that make their lives hard and unsatisfying. The increase in Negro population in these cities, and the decline of white population, particularly of school-going ages, is creating Negro majorities in the public school systems of many large Northern cities. In the smaller cities and suburbs, the proportions of Negro students, and their location in the community, suggest many measures that will diffuse them more evenly through the different schools of the system. In the larger cities, these same measures and others that have been proposed are either impossible to apply or affect relatively small proportions of Negro students. In these cities the reduction of the educational gap for many Negro students can come about only in schools with Negro majorities.