Only one school district in metro Atlanta is under a desegregation order. Many were never under a court order to desegregate while others were declared unified by a federal court.
Atlanta Public Schools: declared unified, 1972
Cherokee County: never under court order
Clayton County: declared unified, 1977
Cobb County: never under court order
Coweta County: under court order
Decatur City: declared unified, 2007
DeKalb County: declared unified, 1996
Douglas County: never under court order
Fayette County: never under court order
Forsyth County: never under court order
Fulton County: declared unified, 2003
Gwinnett County: never under court order
Henry County: never under court order
Hall County: never under court order
Marietta City: never under court order
Paulding County: never under court order
Rockdale County: never under court order
Other Georgia districts:
Bibb County: declared unified, 2007
Chatham-Savannah: declared unified, 1994
*Dougherty County: under court order
Muscogee County: declared unified, 1997
Richmond County: declared unified, 2013
Note: In 2000, Dougherty sought to be declared unified. This year, an attorney for the district, where black students make up 87 percent of enrollment, directed that research be conducted to determine what would be required to have the desegregation order lifted.
Below is a snapshot of the demographics and academic performance of Richmond County Public Schools
Enrollment: 32,159
Black: 73 percent
White: 22 percent
Hispanic: 2 percent
Asian: 2 percent
Multicultural: 2 percent
Source: January 2013 figures from the Richmond County School District
2013 College and Career Ready Performance Index grades compared to state average. (Index grades of 0 to 110 are based in part on graduation rates, attendance and performance on standardized tests.):
Richmond County elementary schools: 66.1 (state, 83.4)
Richmond County middle schools: 65.5 (state, 72.6)
Richmond County high schools: 63 (state, 81.4)
Source: Georgia Department of Education
2012 graduation rate
Richmond County, 59.19 percent (state, 69.7 percent)
Source: Georgia Department of Education
AUGUSTA – A pair of legal rulings — one issued by a federal judge here, and another handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court — mark a turning point in federal oversight of desegregation and anti-discrimination efforts in Georgia and other southern states with long histories of racial oppression.
U.S. District Court Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. closed an ugly chapter in Richmond County’s history late last month when he lifted a 41-year old order demanding the desegregation of the county’s public schools.
Bowen's ruling came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Georgia and other southern states could change their voting procedures without getting the pre-clearance that had been required by the U.S. Justice Department.
Bowen and the Supreme Court essentially made the same point: Times have changed. But, for those victimized by discrimination, the rulings also raise an important question: Have times changed enough?
Since the days when the idea of black people and white people going to school together or living in the same neighborhoods sparked angry debate, integration has largely been accepted. Twice, the nation has elected a black man to serve as president.
But do those facts mean the edifices erected as barriers to discrimination need to come tumbling down?
The answers to that question differ, depending on who’s talking. Federal judges have begun to say yes. Others, however, including some who bear physical scars from their fight for racial justice, are less certain.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., sharply criticized members of the Supreme Court who ruled against pre-clearance.
“They were never beaten, jailed, run off their farms or fired from their jobs,” said Lewis, who in 1965 was brutally beaten by Alabama state troopers during a march to promote black voting rights. “No one they knew died simply trying to register to vote. I disagree with the court that the history of discrimination is somehow irrelevant today.”
Lewis was speaking specifically about the pre-clearance ruling. But his concern — that the removal of federal protection against discrimination could open the door to renewed discrimination — echoes in Richmond County.
“Things have gotten better, but I think it has gotten better because these mandates are in place. And, if you remove them, the old natures might pop back up,” said Benjamin Motley, a retired principal in Richmond County who is black. “I don’t think the desegregation ban should be lifted because of the good that it has done.”
THAT WAS THEN
Roy E. Rollins, superintendent of schools in Richmond County for 14 years, had little to fear in 1964 when he spoke against desegregating early grades in a 60-page deposition now housed at the National Archives in Morrow.
He referred to black students at one point as “Negroid.” He said the plan to desegregate grades 1 through 3 — a strikingly modest plan offered a full decade after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional — would present many “obstacles.”
“It is just not conducive to a good school atmosphere,” Rollins said. “People … would dislike the idea of going to school with the races mixed.”
Richmond County took several steps district officials said would, eventually, desegregate the school system. But those steps, which included a voluntary transfer policy that was ignored by white students, were deemed insufficient by a federal judge.
Finally, in January of 1972, U.S. District Court Judge Alexander Lawrence ordered Richmond County to implement a desegregation plan that re-zoned portions of the district.
Desegregation efforts, ordered by federal courts and overseen by the federal government, eventually broke the back of school segregation.
The lifting of Alexander’s 1972 desegregation order is part of a broader wave in Georgia. In 2007, there were 74 active desegregation orders in the state. Now, there are 38 Justice Department cases and a handful of other private party cases, according to the Justice Department and the U.S. Commission on Human Rights, which researched the existing orders.
Some politicians, parents and interest groups say the orders provide a security blanket against backsliding by districts that have been unable or unwilling to get them lifted.
A NEW BUILDING, NEW HOPES
On a struggling stretch of Broad Street, across from the chimney of an old Confederate powder works, a new community center gleams amid run-down shotgun houses.
The Salvation Army Kroc Center, built with money from the late McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc, opened in 2011. On the edge of downtown Augusta, it stands now as a testimony to the rebirth many want to see for the city and for the county.
In some ways, that rebirth is already underway. Even though the center is located in an area where residents are nearly all black, children of all races come to the center to swim and play. Black and white men, fresh from work, come by to work out.
Neither Augusta nor Richmond County is a racial utopia — there are still black and white sections of town, and race is sometimes a factor in local politics. But the Kroc Center’s diverse clientele speaks to a softening of the ironclad stance against integration the local district took in the 1960s.
Demographics, not to mention attitudes, are evolving.
In 1960, four years before Willie Acree and 14 other parents sued the Richmond school district, 68 percent of Richmond County was white, U.S. Census Bureau records show. Richmond County and the city of Augusta underwent demographic shifts from the 1960s, with both going from majority white to majority black, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.
In 2011, Richmond County’s population was 54 percent black and 41 percent white, Census Bureau figures show. Augusta went from being 55 percent white in 1960 to 39 percent white in 2010.
Marion Morris, a 57-year old disabled U.S. Army veteran, remembered what the schools were like in the ’60s and ’70s.
“That racism was still going on,” said Morris, who is black. “Come play time, break time, they had their side. We had our side.”
Today, things have changed, Morris said.
“Now, it’s done come together,” he said. “Whites go with the blacks, and blacks go with the whites. It’s a whole lot better.”
Some in Richmond County argue that whites have moved to nearby Columbia County as the black population of Richmond swelled.
The percentage of white residents in Columbia County rose from 64 percent in 1960 to 76.5 percent in 2010.
Columbia County’s school district, whose faculty is 91 percent white, remains under a desegregation order. Superintendent Sandra Carraway said the district got a letter from the U.S. Justice Department seven years ago asking that it seek to get the decades-old case closed.
District officials decided the costs weren’t worth the effort, particularly since the district considers itself fully integrated, Carraway said.
“I wish it could go away without it costing the school system because our money today is so sparse anyway,” she said of the lawsuit. “We would have to pay an attorney to do the leg work and take it to court. Why would we want to do that? There is no compelling reason.”
FEDS DRIVE A HARD BARGAIN
Historically, the U.S. Justice Department has been one of the biggest hurdles districts face in trying to get desegregation orders lifted, said Phil Hartley, an attorney who represents school districts.
School districts often try to get the Justice Department of agree to lift orders so they can avoid legal costs. But the department and other interested parties, such as the NAACP, could demand evidence that the district has met integration requirements, which includes balance in hiring and in providing transportation.
Getting that evidence and seeing the legal fight through can easily bring a six-figure legal tab, Hartley said.
More than a year ago, Coweta County asked the Justice Department to partner with it in getting a desegregation order lifted after spending years compiling data to satisfy federal concerns, said Nathan Lee, a lawyer who represents Coweta.
The district agreed to monitor the race of its student body, faculty and staff and to provide monthly quarterly reports. Coweta still has not gotten an answer.
The Justice Department doesn’t make it easy to lift desegregation orders, Hartley said.
“Justice can complain about a lot of things,” Hartley said. “Justice can complain about the employment numbers. Justice can complain about how active the school districts have been in recruiting minority candidates. Justice can complain about the extracurricular activities.”
The Decatur City School district wasn’t certified as integrated until 2007 following a five-year review by the Justice Department during which the district provided statistics on the racial makeup of its students, faculty and staff.
Venus Cain, president of the Richmond County School Board, said she understands the concerns of some who fear that lifting the desegregation order will open the door to renewed discrimination in the district. Still, she said, she’s glad the order was lifted.
“I do have fears,” she said. “As long as I’m on the board, I’m going to speak up for what is morally and ethically right.”
Monique Braswell, who has four children in the district and is running for Cain’s seat, said she has concerns about how the district is run. But she agreed with Cain that the judge was right to lift the order.
“I think it’s time,” Braswell said. “Not being a native of Augusta, I can’t talk about what I didn’t see. It is the responsibility of the Board of Education to continue as if the order were still in place.”
About the Author
