Limits of Desegregation and the Legacy of Segregation in Chicago's Schools

• In Event: 72.028 - The Landscape of Education Policy and Politics in Chicago: Neoliberalism, Race, Resistance, and Justice

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
The purpose of this paper is to provide the historical antecedents of current school segregation in Chicago through an examination of failed school desegregation policies. Chicago’s policy makers at the municipal and school district level maintained and enhanced segregation though a myriad of ways. School boundaries were gerrymandered, and attendance areas and mobile units contained Blacks at overcrowded schools in Black communities while allowing underutilized White schools to exist nearby (Homel, 1984; Crisis, 1958). The city operated a dual system of education that stunted equality of opportunity. The federal government armed with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, attempted to force the city to desegregate with such limited success, that the majority of the city’s school were never impacted.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
The Chicago school desegregation experience provides a history of implementing a federal civil rights law in the North as enforcers faced shifting federal agenda, local political power, stakeholder opposition, and demographic transitions. As Chicagoans engaged in the Civil Rights Movement exposed the inequalities and segregation in a northern city with a powerful mayor, federal officials had to add additional guidelines to the help implement the Civil Rights Act. The political environment caused policy modifications neither intended nor foreseen (Orfield, 1969; Anderson and Pickering, 1986; Danns 2003). The focus on the city brought to the fore the ways in which issues beyond schools impact and dictate the effectiveness schools have in bringing about social change.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Through the use of historical methodology, this paper utilizes archival research. In addition newspapers and some oral history interviews helped to shape the analysis.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Archival materials came from Chicago Board of Education records, the records of a state superintendent of education, federal records of the Justice Department and the Department of Health Education and Welfare, and court documents from the National Archives.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Federal agencies, armed with federal law (1964 Civil Rights Act) and court rulings, worked to implement school desegregation in Chicago despite not having the personnel to handle the compliance for numerous districts around the country. As these agencies attempted to desegregate Chicago, presidential administrations changed numerous times, resulting in change in agency leadership and policy goals. Congress continually chipped away at the effectiveness of the Civil Rights Act (Halpern, 1995; Tatel, 1979). A mostly unwilling Chicago Board of Education faced with limited resources and constituent protests against school desegregation made halfhearted attempts at undoing institutionalized segregation. Without the resources, stability in agency leadership and policy goals, school desegregation in Chicago was destined for failure.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Chicago is distinctive when compared to other major cities because of the involvement of the state and federal government, and because no major school desegregation court ruling came from Chicago. Instead, policy came directly from the government. This study’s northern focus, policy emphasis, and multiethnic demographics set it apart from other studies.

Author

• Dionne Danns, Indiana University