Chicago School Desegregation and the Role of the State of Illinois, 1971-1979

This article will focus on the efforts of the State of Illinois to desegregate Chicago Public Schools between 1971 and 1979. The article also examines the responsibility taken on by the State of Illinois to desegregate schools and the limits between establishing the mechanisms to desegregate and the ability to accomplish those goals in Chicago. Illinois is among few northern states which took the initiative to demand desegregation from its districts (Cronin 1978). Chicago and other districts were forced to create desegregation plans which met with state guidelines. The demographic realities of the Chicago's public schools (which were majority Black and Latino), the continued white flight, the lack of political will on the part of school officials, and state official's resistance to busing combined to thwart meaningful desegregation efforts.