2A
NEWS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, October 16, 1997
Swann v. Board goes before courts again
Chronology of desegregation
of Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools
• 1954: The Supreme Court
ruled in Brown v Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas
that separate schools are not
equal.
• 1957: Four hlack students
enter all-white schools in
Charlotte. Dorothy Counts
attends Harding High School,
but leaves after constant
harassment by white students.
Seventh-grader Delores
Huntley attends Alexander
Graham Junior High School,
then transferred to all-black
Second Ward High. Gus
Roberts attends Central High
School for two years, graduat
ing in 1959. Roberts’ sister,
Girvaud Roberts, attends
Piedmont Junior High School
two years before transferring to
a black private school.
• 1965: Swann v. Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Board of
Education opens. School offi
cials close some all-black
. schools in the county and bused
! the black students to all-white
schools. Swann plaintiffs
appealed court-approval of
school desegregation plan.
• April 1969: Swann plaintiffs
file motion for further relief
and court orders immediate
; faculty desegregation and
active pupil desegregation plan
in fall of 1969. School officials
secure approval of a temporary
plan which desegregate facul
ties, closes seven black schools
and buses 1,300 black students
from those schools to suburban
. white schools.
• February 1970: School
board replaces court-rejected
desegregation plan with one
devised by court-appointed con
sultant James Finger. Finger’s
plan desegregates elementary
achnnio K>' nairina and cluster-
. ing, so that black students Are
; bused across town most of early
school years, but white stu-
■ dents are only bused out of
neighborhoods in later school
years,
• April 20, 1971: Supreme
Court unanimously upholds
District Court Judge James
McMillan in Swann v. Board of
Education. The school board
appealed this ruling. The peti
tion was denied.
• June 17, 1971: The school
board submits a proposed
“feeder plan” which would have
closed more black schools,
made black elementary schools
six-grade only and left the one
remaining formerly black high
school. West Charlotte, under
capacity. The court ruled the
plan incomplete and the board
withdrew it from consideration.
• June 29, 1971: Court condi-
tonally approves a revised feed
er plan and notes that it was
discriminatory because it
placed burden of busing on
inner city black children and
left several affluent white
areas with neighborhood
schools.
• Oct. 4, 1976: Supreme
Court denies petition by white
students in Louella
Cuthbertson, et al, v. Board of
Education. The Supreme Court
(affirming lower court rulings)
held individuals are not denied
any constitutional rights by
being assigned to various
schools in accordance with a
court imposed desegregation
plan.”
• April 6, 1981: Supreme
Court, in Martin, et al, v. Board
of Education, upholds Judge
McMillan’s ruling. That law
suit was brought by 44 white
familiesclaiming constitutional
rights violations based on
school reassignments in 1978-
79.
McMillan had ruled on Aug.
10, 1979, that the school board
acted properly.
Chronology excerpted from
one prepared by the League of
Women Voters from material
supplied by Chris Folk, former
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
associate superintendent.
Continued from page 1A
is ‘we don’t want kids from the
projects or trailer parks sitting
next to my child.’
“It is not a black and white
issue. There are the black nation
alists and also the disgusted par
ents who say ‘white folks have
done a lousy job of educating our
children.’
“It is not necessarily bad people,
but scared people.”
Nickelson said some white anti
busing advocates are guilty of
symbohc racism, because they
say their opposition is based on
principle, but the result main
tains privileges for their own race.
The Capacchione lawsuit is
being handled by the law firm
which defended the school system
against the original Swaim law
suit and a high-powered Houston
law firm which has represented
social conservatives in legal bat
tles, including the attacks on
minority congressional districts in
Virginia and South Carolina.
Capacchione is believed to have
ties to an anti-busing group
formed Eifter last year’s pupil
reassignments angered
Matthews area parents by not
assigning their children to the
new Butler High School on N.C.
51.
The Matthews students are
assigned to East Mecklenburg
High, on Monroe Road, east of
Idle-wild Road.
The birth of Citizens For A
Neighborhood/Community-based
School System spawned the cre
ation of the Swann Fellowship,
which supports an integrated
Busing’s role is at heart of
school desegregation debate
school system. Fellowship mem
ber Araminta Johnson said the
group wants to educate the com
munity about the value of racial
diversity in the school system.
“We are trying to change the cli
mate in this community about the
value of integrated schools,” said
Johnston, who is white. “A lot of
us have grovm up having contact
with people of a different race and
our children have, and we value
that. My children were bused for
12 years and we didn’t see any
harm in it.”
The Swann Fellowship, League
of Women Voters, longtime sup
porters of integrated schools, and
the Black Political Caucus were
on hand for last week’s announce
ment of the Swann motion.
“We are here because we have to
be, not because we want to be,”
said Anita Hodgkiss, the
Ferguson, Stein law firm partner,
who will handle the Swann case.
Hodgkiss said the Swann attor
neys feel a Capacchione court vic
tory will end desegregation in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.
Though integration supporters
say there is broad-based support
for desegregated education,
efforts to end busing orders con
tinue. In many cases, such as in
Denver, Colo., those efforts come
with the blessing, if not instiga
tion, of African American parents.
National studies show that a
growing number of African
American parents have given up
on public education, and its sag
ging reputation for poor achieve
ment and undisciplined beha-vior.
More African American are
turning to private schools, includ
ing some all-black institutions
and government-funded charter
schools. Others are pushing for a
return to neighborhood schools,
such as the Denver plan. They
say the performance of students is
more important than who they go
to school with.
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