The Enduring Legacy of Milliken in Kansas City: Looking Back to Seek New Ways to Integration

• In Event: Milliken at 50: Looking Back to Imagine Forward

Abstract

School and housing segregation have long characterized the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) district was racially segregated pre-Brown v. Board of Education (1954), one of the most segregated school districts post-Brown having experienced limited desegregation, and has maintained school segregation in the twenty-first century. The enduring geographic nature of social and educational inequality in Kansas City (Rury, 2019) can be traced directly to the Milliken v Bradley (1974) decision, which thwarted decades of efforts by city leaders and civil rights activists to adopt a metropolitan-wide school desegregation plan (Gotham, 2002). In this paper, I examine the link between the Milliken (1974) decision and Kansas City’s landmark desegregation case, Missouri v. Jenkins (1995), and how both decisions were instrumental in lasting segregation in KCPS. The Jenkins (1995) ruling was the last in a trifecta of desegregation cases ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1990s that solidified the shift in Court’s approach to desegregation remedies. The Court’s decision in Jenkins (1995) overturned a district court ruling that ordered the State of Missouri to address racial segregation in its schools by funding salary increases and educational programs. The decision continues to reverberate throughout Kansas City today and the influx of charter schools in the city has further complicated and contributed to segregation in the district. Yet, looking back at the missteps of desegregation in Kansas City may better situate us to combat contemporary segregation and school choice efforts and determine a new path toward integration.

Authors

• Sarah Diem, University of Missouri

• Riley Rohler, University of Missouri