TALKING POINTS: Supreme Court School Desegregation Cases
Talking Points
The NAACP spearheaded the fight to have public school segregation declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court more than 50 years ago and strongly condemns any plan that resegregates public schools and retreats from the legacy of Brown v. Board of Ed.
The Fourteenth Amendment allows the use of race as a factor when there is "a compelling interest narrowly tailored with strict scrutiny." The 9th circuit court which previously upheld Seattle's right to use race as a deciding factor was correct in arguing that the use of race to ensure integrated schools is "a compelling interest in securing the educational and social benefits of racial (and ethnic) diversity."
Decades of research has established the educational benefits that accrue to children of different races and cultural backgrounds when they are educated together. It is imperative that the Supreme Court find that the use of race as a factor in creating equitable school enrollment bolsters equal protection under the law rather than denying it. Equity is not unconstitutional.
De facto segregation that exists in schools nationally is attributable to racially segregated housing patterns indicative of broad social inequalities. The Seattle and Louisville plans ensure that inequities in housing do not persist into inequities in public schooling.
Without the legal protection afforded under Brown v Board of Education, there will be no structure to keep public education from returning to a Plessy v. Ferguson "separate and unequal" state. History and law tell us that segregation is a certain path to inequality.
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