Impact of Shifting Federal School Policy on Chicago

• In Event: Roundtable Session 84
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking Desegregation

Abstract

On September 24, 1980, the city of Chicago entered into a school desegregation consent decree with the Justice Department. As the third largest school district in the country, Chicago was also the largest district in which the Justice Department forced student desegregation. The consent decree cleared the way for Chicago to create a new school desegregation plan, which would be approved by the federal government. After years of investigations and federal and state pressure for school desegregation, the Chicago Board of Education agreed to use a variety of voluntary techniques, with mandatory backups, in an effort to desegregate its students. The consent decree was negotiated with the Carter Justice Department. However, by the time Chicago’s school officials began to develop their desegregation plan, the national political winds had blown to the right. The Justice Department’s politics moved from Carter’s administration to Ronald Reagan’s administration. Reagan Justice Department officials argued that racial balance was not required by the Supreme Court and therefore, they would approve of voluntary techniques for desegregation without mandatory backups. The shifting political climate likely made it easier for the Justice Department to approve the city’s desegregation plans because the city would not be held to the same standards for desegregation.
Chicago Public School officials did what they could to achieve desegregation with the 18 percent remaining White students. Although the plan failed to incorporate more Black students and critics speculated that it would not have been approved by the Carter administration, it was effective in desegregating White schools. The plan was far more successful than any that had previously been attempted. It desegregated White schools that had been largely untouched with previous desegregation plans and led to the desegregation of approximately 78,000 students in its initial years of implementation. Although the number of White students continued to decline over the years, desegregation did not lead to the massive exodus that many had anticipated. With all of its shortcomings, the plan was efficient and matched the demographic reality in the city. More Black students could have been impacted. However, the movement of White students throughout the city would still have left many Black schools segregated.
The sources used for this study are largely archival. Chicago Board of Education and Justice Department documents, along with interviews with Board members make up the bulk of the primary sources. Extensive newspaper documentation (primarily the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribunes) provide guidance for the timing of policies and events. Each source is triangulated with secondary sources about Chicago and federal politics, and desegregation in other cities in an effort to contextualize this study.

Author

• Dionne Danns, Indiana University