With the increased attention on the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, individuals, organizations and institutions have looked at ways to address structural racism and close equity gaps.
Dr. Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, says looking at systemic processes instead, especially within education, is an essential part of achieving those outcomes.
“The criminal justice issues and the police brutality issues are extremely important,” he says. “But, of course, what leads to those conditions? And what is necessary to get beyond the criminal justice reforms to actually create a more equal society?”
The Civil Rights Project’s recent report, “Black Segregation Matters: School Resegregation and Black Educational Opportunity,” highlights the increasing number of segregated K-12 schools across the country.
Black students make up one in seven students across the United States. Schools in the South have the highest percentage of Black students at 23%, while schools on the West Coast have the lowest at 4.8%. Additionally, Black enrollment in large and mid-sized cities is higher than in towns and rural areas, according to the report.
When the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of schools “with all deliberate speed” in its Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, Black students consisted of one-eighth of the U.S. school population while Latinx and Asian students were not recognized statistically until 1968, according to the report.
Now Latinx students make up 27% of the U.S. school population and Asian students now make up 6%, according to the report.
