A federal judge has ruled that public schools in Cleveland, Miss., must be desegregated, concluding a legal battle that has dragged on for more than half a century in the small town of 12,000 residents.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ruled late in a 96-page opinion late Friday the city must consolidate its middle and high schools in the fall, according to a Justice Department press release issued Monday. The decision comes nearly 62 years after May 17, 1954, when the highest court ruled against separating students in schools because of color or ethnicity.
“Six decades after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declared that ‘separate but equal has no place’ in public schools, this decision serves as a reminder to districts that delaying desegregation obligations is both unacceptable and unconstitutional,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
The judge stated the town’s decision to send African-American and Caucasian students to separate schools has “deprived generations of students of the constitutionally guaranteed right of an integrated education.”
The court admitted that while it is unable to “right these wrongs,” its decision going forward will ensure “not one more student suffers under this burden.”
The Justice Department has approved a plan to implement new educational programs in the unsegregated schools and said it will monitor the situation along with community leaders.
