The Shaping of Policy: Exploring the Context, Contradictions, and Contours of Privilege in Milliken v. Bradley I 40 Years Later

• In Event: Forty Years After Milliken v. Bradley I (1974): Looking Back to Move Forward

Abstract

In Milliken v. Bradley I (1974), a group of African American parents and their school children filed a lawsuit against the Detroit Public School (DPS) system because of educational inequities and racial segregation of Black students. A federal district court concluded that Detroit Public Schools, governmental, and private sector policies established and maintained a pattern of school and residential segregation throughout metropolitan Detroit. Consequently, the court ordered the adoption of a cross-district desegregation plan that would integrate Detroit and 53 suburban districts, because Detroit-only desegregation plans were inadequate (Milliken v. Bradley, 1974). The Court of Appeals agreed that de jure segregation policies and actions were present and affirmed the metropolitan plan. However, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court halted a cross-district remedy because it asserted that it must first be shown that at least one of the suburban districts had committed a constitutional violation that produced a significant segregative effect in Detroit.

Retrenching from the landmark Brown v. Board (1954) ruling, researchers have found Milliken I (1974) to be a pivotal United States Supreme Court Case (Baugh, 2011; Jones, 1992; Orfield, 2009; Radelet, 1991; Ryan, 2011) in the fight for educational equality through school desegregation policy. An analysis of the case reveals the Supreme Court focused squarely on intent of suburban districts at the expense of ignoring the material effects of the “white privilege” that accrued to these districts. In finding the plan impermissible, the Court held that desegregation, "in the sense of dismantling a dual school system, does not require any particular racial balance in each school, grade or classroom.” (p. 740). Also, contrary to Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Court privileged local control of schools over desegregating school districts, which it asserted twenty years earlier in Brown. This approach represented a clear movement away from the inclusion of Whites’ property rights in remedies, and subsequently, the contours of Milliken I are still felt in urban and suburban schools districts across the United States (Baugh, 2011; Orfield, 2009).

As such, in this study, we analyze the context, contradictions, and contours of privilege in policy as found in Milliken I. To achieve this purpose, we examine the research questions: (a) What were the key school desegregation cases that preceded and shaped Milliken I? (b) What was the educational, social, and political context in Detroit prior to and during Milliken I? (c) How have the contours of privileging in Milliken I shaped the fight for educational equality in the United States? Using legal research and qualitative content analysis, this study reviews education and legal literature on Milliken v. Bradley I leading up to the decision in 1974 to 2013. Data analysis was conducted using the constant comparative method and the theoretical framework that shaped this study, Sankofa, an African-centered lens that reclaims the past to move forward. This study concludes with implications for school desegregation policy and future research.

Authors

• Terrance Green, The University of Texas - Austin

• Mark A. Gooden, The University of Texas - Austin