JMA-PSOS

CNN has an excellent article about the lesser-known Milliken (1974) SCOTUS decision that some argue ended Brown (1954) long before PICS (2007). Opening paragraphs:

If you ask someone to name the Supreme Court’s single greatest moment, many will cite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. That landmark ruling, which unanimously found that the racial segregation of students in public schools was unconstitutional, is considered a turning point in American history.

But 70 years after the Court ordered public schools to desegregate at “all deliberate speed,” many public schools in America remain racially separate and unequal. And this racial isolation is deepening. Racial segregation has increased 64% since 1988 in the nation’s 100 largest school districts, according to a 2024 study from Stanford University and the University of Southern California.

How did this happen? The reasons are complex, but according to a provocative new book, much of the blame can be placed on another Supreme Court ruling that few like to talk about: The 1974 Milliken v. Bradley decision.

In “The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North,” author Michelle Adams argues that contemporary American schools are shaped more by Milliken than by Brown. What one Supreme Court gave in Brown, another took away in Milliken, leaving us with the separate but unequal public school system that we have today, she says. Four of the five justices in the Milliken majority were appointed by President Richard Nixon, a Republican, reflecting the court’s shift to the right since its Brown decision.

“Milliken v. Bradley is where the promise of Brown v. Board of Education ended,” Adams writes in her book.

On the same topic, some might also mention SAISD v Rodriguez (1973), the CFE campaign in New York state (the most segregated K-12 public education system in the nation as of 2018) or other landmark cases.