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Although faced with the resistance of Governor Wallace and other white leaders, the civil rights movement persevered. Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream, and together they would make it a reality. Desegregation increased continually from the 1950's to the late 1980's. But now statistics indicate that segregation is the new reality with almost half of all public schools in the West and South being nonwhite (Frankenberg). The Supreme Court is beginning to turn back the clock:.
Many of the nation's most successful plans are being dismantled by federal court decisions as the courts have been changed from being on the leading edge of desegregation activity to being its greatest obstacle. Since the Supreme Court changed desegregation law in three major decisions between 1991 and 1995, the momentum of desegregation for Black students has clearly reversed in the South, where the movement had by far its greatest success. By the 1990's, the proportion of black students in majority white schools has decreased by 13 percentage points, to a level lower than any year since 1968. (Frankenberg).
More recently, the Supreme Court's refusal to review a Charlotte, N.C. desegregation case led to the end of the oldest busing program in the country (Study 6). These policies have had a significant impact on the racial make-up of schools. .
Did desegregation truly improve the quality of education African Americans received? In certain parts of the country, African American students benefited tremendously. Before Brown, they had been segregated in schools that were under funded and had fewer course offerings than white schools. Desegregation helped narrow the academic achievement gap between blacks and whites, to a certain degree. Minority students also benefited by being in integrated settings, which brought networking opportunities that had been previously closed to them (Byrd-Chichester 21).
