Education segregation in Wisconsin

Last updated

Wisconsin has some of the most segregated schools in the United States. Despite laws demanding school integration, a 2012 study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project found that Wisconsin still has significant segregation in its classrooms.

Contents

Almost half of black students in Wisconsin attend a school where 90% or more of the students are non-white.

Background

Wisconsin became a state in 1848. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legitimized separate but equal as national policy.

After Brown v. Board of Education , the state still needed a legal push. Amos, et al. v. Board of School Directors of the City of Milwaukee (1965) was the beginning in Wisconsin.

National policy came in 1971 in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education which relied on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The federal answer was court-ordered busing. Meanwhile, Amos was appealed in 1976, and ended up in the United States Supreme Court as Brennan v. Armstrong (1977). The decision of the circuit court of appeals was remanded back to the original court. Finally, United States District Judge John W. Reynolds Jr. oversaw a five-year plan for the Milwaukee school Board to desegregate the schools. In Wisconsin, busing began in 1981. [1]

Demographics

Citizens of Wisconsin describe themselves as being more white than the rest of the country. In the 2010 Census, 86.2% reported being white, compared with 73.8 for the nation as a whole.

Wisconsin had never been a slave state. The 1860 Census reported a state population of 775,881. [2] Of those, 1,711 were colored, all free. [3] By 1900, that number had grown only to 2,500. [4] The black population of Wisconsin grew substantially in the 20th century to 6% today.

School demographics

The demographics of schools in Wisconsin reflect the composition of the communities in which they are located. Today, 71% of the state's black population lives in Milwaukee County, where they make up 41% of the population. As a result, the numbers for the rest of the state are skewed by schools in Milwaukee whose percentage is black population is far higher than the rest of the state. [4]

Studies

Since 1996, the relative segregation of classrooms across the United States has been studied by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard until 2007 and subsequently at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.

A 2016 UCLA study showed that 45.3% of black students in Wisconsin attend a school that is 90% or more non-white. Only six states had a higher percentage. [5] [6]

School vouchers

School vouchers were introduced in Milwaukee in 1990. [7] Indiana has one of the largest school voucher programs in the United States. [8] Critics contend that vouchers contribute to school segregation. Analysis of two recent studies on vouchers show that, in one case they do contribute to more segregation, and in the second, they have little effect, with black recipients who had been in a majority-black public school using the vouchers to attend a majority-black private school. [9]

Related Research Articles

Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact on the settlement patterns of various groups. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American civil rights movement, both before and after the US Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, particularly desegregation of the school systems and the military. Racial integration of society was a closely related goal.

Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974), was a significant United States Supreme Court case dealing with the planned desegregation busing of public school students across district lines among 53 school districts in metropolitan Detroit. It concerned the plans to integrate public schools in the United States following the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desegregation busing</span> Failed attempt to racially diversify American public schools

Desegregation busing was a failed attempt to diversify the racial make-up of schools in the United States by sending students to school districts other than their own. While the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, many American schools continued to remain largely racially homogeneous. In an effort to address the ongoing de facto segregation in schools, the 1971 Supreme Court decision, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, ruled that the federal courts could use busing as a further integration tool to achieve racial balance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund</span> Organization in New York, United States

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is an American civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.

Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his son Harry Jr.'s brother-in-law, James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation, particularly after Brown v. Board of Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segregation academy</span> Segregationist private schools in the US

Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and 1976, when the court ruled similarly about private schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racial segregation in the United States</span> De jure and de facto separation of whites and non-whites

Facilities and services such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, and transportation have been systematically separated in the United States based on racial categorizations. Segregation was the legally or socially enforced separation of African Americans from whites, as well as the separation of other ethnic minorities from majority and mainstream communities. While mainly referring to the physical separation and provision of separate facilities, it can also refer to other manifestations such as prohibitions against interracial marriage, and the separation of roles within an institution. The U.S. Armed Forces were formally segregated until 1948, as black units were separated from white units but were still typically led by white officers.

Joseph Francis Rummel was a German-born American Catholic prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Omaha in Nebraska from 1928 to 1935 and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1935 to 1964.

Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430 (1968), was an important United States Supreme Court case involving school desegregation. Specifically, the Court dealt with the freedom of choice plans created to avoid compliance with the Supreme Court's mandate in Brown II in 1955. The Court held unanimously that New Kent County's freedom of choice plan did not adequately comply with the school board's responsibility to determine a system of admission to public schools on a non-racial basis. The Supreme Court mandated that the school board must formulate new plans and steps towards realistically converting to a desegregated system. Green v. County School Board of New Kent County was a follow-up of Brown v. Board of Education.

Zelma Henderson was the last surviving plaintiff in the 1954 landmark federal school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. The case outlawed segregation nationwide in all of the United States' public schools. The ruling served as a harbinger of the American Civil Rights Movement and paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in all public facilities.

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, "Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. Such laws remained in force until 1965. Formal and informal segregation policies were present in other areas of the United States as well, even as several states outside the South had banned discrimination in public accommodations and voting. Southern laws were enacted by white-dominated state legislatures (Redeemers) to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by African Americans during the Reconstruction era. Such continuing racial segregation was also supported by the successful Lily-white movement.

Lloyd Augustus Barbee was an American lawyer and politician who worked for civil rights. He led the effort to integrate the Milwaukee Public School system. He was a Democrat.

The Civil Rights Project/ El Proyecto de CRP, originally named The Civil Rights Project, is a renowned multidisciplinary research and policy think tank focused on issues of racial justice. In January 2007, The Civil Rights Project moved from Harvard University to the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.

Racial segregation in Atlanta has known many phases after the freeing of the slaves in 1865: a period of relative integration of businesses and residences; Jim Crow laws and official residential and de facto business segregation after the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906; blockbusting and black residential expansion starting in the 1950s; and gradual integration from the late 1960s onwards. A 2015 study conducted by Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com, found that Atlanta was the second most segregated city in the U.S. and the most segregated in the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School segregation in the United States</span> Racial separation in schools

School segregation in the United States was the segregation of students based on their ethnicity. While not prohibited from having schools, various minorities were barred from most schools, schools for whites. Segregation was enforced by formal legal systems in U.S. states primarily in the Southern United States, although elsewhere segregation could be informal or customary. Segregation laws were dismantled in 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court because of the successes being attained during the Civil Rights Movement. Segregation continued longstanding exclusionary policies in much of the Southern United States after the Civil War. School integration in the United States took place at different times in different areas and often met resistance. Jim Crow laws codified segregation. These laws were influenced by the history of slavery and discrimination in the US. Secondary schools for African Americans in the South were called training schools instead of high schools in order to appease racist whites and focused on vocational education. After the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, which banned segregated school laws, school segregation took de facto form. School segregation declined rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s as the government became strict on schools' plans to combat segregation more effectively as a result of Green v. County School Board of New Kent County. Voluntary segregation by income appears to have increased since 1990. Racial segregation has either increased or stayed constant since 1990, depending on which definition of segregation is used. In general, definitions based on the amount of interaction between black and white students show increased racial segregation, while definitions based on the proportion of black and white students in different schools show racial segregation remaining approximately constant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School integration in the United States</span> Racial desegregation process

In the United States, school integration is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the Civil Rights Movement school integration became a priority, but since then de facto segregation has again become prevalent.

This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included securing equal protection under the law, ending legally institutionalized racial discrimination, and gaining equal access to public facilities, education reform, fair housing, and the ability to vote.

New Jersey has some of the most segregated schools in the United States. Despite laws promoting school integration since 1881, a 2017 study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project found that New Jersey has the sixth-most segregated classrooms in the United States.

Indiana has some of the most segregated schools in the United States. Despite laws demanding school integration since 1949, a 2017 study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project and Indiana University found that Indiana still has significant segregation in its classrooms.

The Chester school protests were a series of demonstrations that occurred from November 1963 through April 1964 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The demonstrations aimed to end the de facto segregation of Chester public schools that persisted after the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka. The racial unrest and civil rights protests were led by Stanley Branche of the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) and George Raymond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP).

References

  1. ↑ Meyers, Scottie Lee (August 10, 2016). "Problems Persist In Milwaukee Public Schools 40 Years After Desegregation". Wisconsin Public Radio. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "Census 1860". Census. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "1860 Census" (PDF). US Census. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  4. 1 2 Dwan, Kristin (February 2017). African Americans in Wisconsin A Statistical Overview (PDF) (Third ed.). University of Wisconsin Applied Population Laboratory. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  5. ↑ Orfield, Gary (May 16, 2015). "BROWN AT 62: SCHOOL SEGREGATION BY RACE, POVERTY AND STATE" (PDF). Civil Rights Project-Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 January 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  6. ↑ Lee, Jolie (May 15, 2014). "PUBLIC SCHOOLS STILL SEGREGATED". USA Today. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  7. ↑ Sanchez, Claudio (May 16, 2017). "Lessons On Race And Vouchers From Milwaukee". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  8. ↑ Wang, Stephanie (March 19, 2017). "What's a school voucher? Here's a primer". Indianapolis Star. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  9. ↑ Bendix, Area (March 22, 2017). "Do Private-School Vouchers Promote Segregation?". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.