Raney v. Board of Education

Facts of the Case

In Brown II, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered school boards in segregated school systems to transition to racial nondiscriminatory unitary systems. Raney involved a freedom-of-choice plan that a local board in Arkansas adopted in 1965. Prior to that time, the board operated a state-imposed segregated school system in a town where there was no residential segregation. The African American elementary and high schools were called the “Field Schools,” and the White elementary and high schools were identified as the “Gould Schools.”

As part of the freedom-of-choice plan, the board required students to select between the two sets of schools. Students who did not make a choice were assigned to the schools they previously attended. About 85 African American students attended the Gould Schools; no White students sought attendance at the Field Schools. In short, both the Gould Schools and Field Schools continued to preserve their racially identifiable characteristics as segregated schools, as they had been prior to the freedom-of-choice plans. The African American students unsuccessfully filed suit when they were denied admission at the Gould Schools because the enrollment of children for the 5th, 10th, and 11th grades exceeded the number of places available. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the suit.

The Court's Ruling

On further review in Raney, one of three desegregation cases that it handed own on the same day, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed and remanded in favor of the African American students. In examining the adequacy of the plan under Brown II, the Court relied heavily on Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968), the second of the three cases that it decided the same day as Raney and one that involved a similar freedom-of-choice plan. The Court used its extensive review of Green in striking down the freedom of choice in Raney insofar as Brown directed school boards to develop realistic plans that had promise of dismantling desegregated systems immediately and turning them in unitary systems.

In both Raney and Green, the Supreme Court found that rather than dismantling the segregated school systems, the boards perpetuated dual systems. According to the Raney Court, the freedom-of-choice plan burdened students and parents with the responsibility that Brown II clearly mandated should have been the [Page 666]affirmative duty of school boards. In both Raney and Green, the Court reasoned that the plans were inadequate to move the segregated dual systems to unitary nonracial systems. Green also provided what became known as the “Green factors,” which continue to be widely applied in evaluating overall effectiveness of desegregation plans and whether dual systems have achieved unitary status. These factors address the composition of a student body, faculty, staff, transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities.

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