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Transcript

Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg

Board of Education

Presentation by

Emily Jeffers and Max Gordon

  • After de jure segregation in schools was outlawed due to the Brown V. Board of Education Supreme Court Case, schools remained segregated for many years due to de facto segregation. Laws no longer segregated the schools; schools remained all-black or all-white due to where people lived, since students just walked to the school that was closest to their home. The NAACP brought this issue to the court on behalf of a six year old African American student, James Swann, against the Charlotte school district in North Carolina. They felt that the de facto segregation that still existed was not compliant with the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and that the government should have to actively enforce integration, rather than just outlaw segregation. In 1965, in a local court, Judge J. Braxton, ruled in favor of Charlotte Mecklenburg because there was no Constitutional requirement to purposely increase racial mixing. Swann went on to win his case at the federal district court level, but this was challenged and brought to the Supreme Court.
  • Should the government have to take extra measures to enforce integration in practice when they have already passed law calling for it? How prominent should the role of government be in determining what people choose to do?
  • This case upheld civil rights because it eliminated the de facto segregation that existed for so long after the Brown v. Board of Education case. It gave everyone access to equal public education, regardless of their skin color. It impacted United States Politics because it showed that sometimes the government has to take extra steps to make sure a law they have passed is actually working in practice. It is staggering to think that Brown was passed in 1954, but schools remained almost completely segregated for nearly 20 more years. It was not enough for the government to simply say anyone could go to any school, regardless of race. It would take a brave child to walk into a school full of only members of a different race, where they very well may be hated and discriminated against for their skin color.

  • This case is considered a landmark decision because it changed the make-up of public schools across America. After the Swann v. Mecklenburg Board of Education case, schools desegregated using measures such as racial quotas, court-ordered busing, and reformed district lines. Some people were vehemently set against the measures taken in this case. They believed that the government should not have to take all of these steps. People should be able to do what they want, without such hefty government stipulations. However, if these people had had their way, schools very well may still be segregated today. Sometimes such steps have to be taken in order to ensure what is good – what is right. All people were created equal, and thus are entitled to equal education. Case closed.

Case Significance and Personal Opinion

The Facts

Constitutional Issue

402 U.S. 1, 1971

Ruling

  • On April 20, 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Swann by implementing the federal district court’s plan to fully integrate all of the district’s public schools. Their decision was unanimous. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger stated:

In these circumstances, we find no basis for holding that the local school authorities may not be required to employ bus transportation as one tool of school desegregation. Desegregation plans cannot be limited to the walk-in [close-by] school.

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