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From the U.S. Supreme Court Back to Louisville:  What’s the Future of School Desegregation?

By Theresa Camoriano

Teddy Gordon recently stood in front of a Louisville Bar Association audience and explained how he happened to find himself suing Jefferson County Schools, first on behalf of black students and then on behalf of white students who were denied admission to their desired school due to racial quotas.  Gordon said he just thought it was wrong that a student should be denied admission to a school on the basis of race, and he agreed to take each of these cases for one dollar.  As a sole practitioner, this was not an easy thing for him to do, since he had to earn his own living and did not have partners with whom to share the financial burden. 

Gordon said he thought it was wrong that black students who lived near Central High School were denied admission on the basis of race when there was space for an additional 500 students in that school.  He found it even worse that these black students were bused across town to schools that were not as good as Central High School.  Gordon won that case, but the assignment of students on the basis of race did not end.  Jefferson County continued to have a policy that did not permit schools to have less than 15% or more than 50% black students.  So, when Crystal Meredith received a letter from Jefferson County Schools telling her that her son was denied admission to Bloom Elementary School on the basis of his race, Gordon had his next case, which he again accepted for one dollar, and which led him all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gordon was pleased with the Meredith decision and said he was prepared to challenge Jefferson County Schools again if necessary.  He acknowledged that he has received very few phone calls from families who are unhappy with the current school assignment plan (150 calls out of a system with 97,000 students).

Byron Leet, the attorney for Jefferson County Schools, said there is strong evidence that students from low socio-economic areas have much better educational outcomes when they attend schools in higher socio-economic areas.  He described the home situations of many of the students from Title I neighborhoods as being in a single parent household, where there may be drug problems, where education is not valued, and where the students do not have parental support or any hope for the future.  He said it is important for these underprivileged students to be exposed to students from a different environment.  Leet acknowledged that there is no evidence to support the idea that children have better educational outcomes in mixed race classrooms than in segregated classrooms, but he said there is a value to racial integration apart from educational outcomes. 

Leet said the Supreme Court decision now allows schools to ignore race altogether and simply assign students to their local schools, which will lead to resegregation. 

Cedric Powell, a black law professor at the University of Louisville, said discrimination on the basis of race continues to be a large problem that should not be ignored.  He related that he was stopped by the police in his neighborhood last summer and was treated very rudely because he was black.  He continues to be very angry about that incident, and a call to the police chief, who also is black, provided no relief.  Teddy Gordon offered to take his case for one dollar, but Powell declined.

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