Member-only story
Separate and Unequal Again: The Resegregation of America’s Public Schools
The urgency to reverse the back-to-Jim-Crow trend
I went to middle school in the 1980s, just after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Duncan in Ohio courageously ruled that Columbus needed to integrate public schools. Judge Duncan found that Columbus had systemically segregated the school system for decades and needed to correct it.
And so, from 1981 onward, my schools were virtually 50–50 Black and white. Among the “whites,” the school had about 10% Jews, and a smattering of other ethnicities, including Macedonian immigrants.
All of our classes were integrated. From the honors programs to computer science labs to the vocational program to train future auto mechanics. The cheerleading squads, sports teams, choir, dance teams and theater club all were integrated. Even the lunch tables were somewhat integrated.
I cannot quantify in numbers the benefits of this integration, but on the ground, it had profound tangible benefits.
For one, my classmates, white and Black, nearly all grew with a racially diverse group of friends, most of whom still maintain interracial relationships.
And regardless of politics, that’s why nearly everyone who went through that integrated…