Morgan V. O'Bryant

Historical Context

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas (1954) to abolish segregation in the school system left loose ends. In Brown, legally mandated discrimination (de jure segregation) had been eliminated in student placement; however, the courts still had to examine every aspect of school functions, including faculty, administration, activities, transportation, and facilities. Desegregation was not instantaneous, and its installment spurred a flood of school-related discrimination proceedings in the court system.

As the Supreme Court turned its attention away from schools in the South to those in the North, the justices soon recognized that achieving desegregation in northern schools would require different methods than those used in southern schools. In the South, African Americans and Whites lived within close proximity of each other, and desegregation was achieved simply by assigning students to schools closest to their homes. This arrangement would not function as efficiently in the northern states because of segregated living arrangements.

Slow improvement was accomplished by some states, including North Carolina in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), which delineated requirements to improve desegregation in North Carolina's school system by increasing bus transportation for African American students and new construction of schools near African American neighborhoods.

More than a decade after Brown, the Supreme Court held in the 1970s that faculty desegregation was a requisite component in the desegregation of schools, after district judges found that school boards had engaged in racially discriminatory hiring practices. These courts issued orders confirming the constitutional rights of students from minority groups to attend desegregated schools and school systems. Student educational rights were reiterated in Hazelwood School District v. United States (1977).

In the case of Boston, its period of desegregation began in the 1970s with Morgan v. Hennigan (1974), when parents of African American students brought a suit charging that the dual school system was unequal. The lawsuit held that Boston public school authorities had knowingly engaged in a policy of racial discrimination. Further, the case revealed that the school system had intentionally maintained a segregated dual school system. In his 1974 ruling, Judge W. Arthur Garrity acknowledged the unconstitutionality of Boston school authorities' actions and required the parties to submit a plan for desegregating the school system. However, in the plan submitted, fewer than half of the students in the Boston School District were included, and those who were subject to the plan were painfully and unfairly affected.

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