Is school desegregation litigation going on today?
Yes. • All too often, court ordered school desegregation plans established under Brown are being set aside. Affected communities include Topeka, Kansas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Wilmington, Delaware; Miami/Dade, Lee, Hillsborough and other counties in Florida; public schools in Georgia; Cleveland, Ohio; and recently Prince Georges County, Maryland; Benton Harbor, Michigan; and Rockford, Illinois. • The Alabama Education Association and NEA supported litigation in Lee v. Macon is still under judicial review with court action ongoing. This complex desegregation case found disproportionately high numbers of African American students placed in special education — supposedly reserved for physically or mentally challenged students with special needs. Disproportionately low numbers of African American students were in the state’s gifted/talented programs.- • Fifty years after the landmark case, Brown’s legal arguments are being heard in the Kentucky case of McFarland,
