Ironies of School Desegregation

A survey of policies, problems, & issues related to desegregation in general, & school desegregation in particular, spanning over three & a half centuries -- from 1619 to 1977. Major topics are: (1) roots of the problem -- 1619-1954; (2) the past -- 1955-1969; (3) the decade of the seventies; & (4) future perspectives on desegregation. Within this framework, laws, court decisions, public policies, & actions of influential people are discussed with respect to their positive & negative effects on the black minority. Recommendations aimed at forward progress are made. Desegregation is defined as both process & goal. As a process, it is a reversal, or undoing, of the public policy of mandatory segregation, which had imposed on the US the separation of the races (including separation in schools), & discriminatory practices against blacks & other nonwhites, which had imposed on them grossly unequal conditions related to education, occupation, income, housing, & life changes. Desegregation is enacted public policy designed to remedy the grossly unequal conditions cited above, resulting in actual opportunity at equal life chances in all areas. Modified AA.