On July 22 a trial over the issue of racial segregation of students in Pitt County Schools (PCS) will begin at the Eastern District Federal Courthouse in Greenville, N.C. The UNC Center for Civil Rights (CCR) and co-counsel are representing a group of African-American parents and the Pitt County Coalition for Educating Black Children (the plaintiffs) to reverse a PCS student assignment plan that they assert resegregated several schools in the district. At the same time, PCS will seek a declaration of “unitary status” and an end to over four decades of federal judicial oversight. A school district is considered unitary when it has eliminated the effects of past racial segregation to the extent practicable.
This is the first major unitary status case in North Carolina since 1999. Over 100 school districts across the South are still under court supervision, and many advocates involved in those districts will likely be monitoring this lawsuit to see how the case unfolds.
The UNC Center for Civil Rights are joined as Plaintiffs' counsel by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law and Dechert LLP.
Media inquiries may be directed to the UNC Law School Communications Office (Allison Reid, 919.843.7148, allison_reid@unc.edu) or UNC Center for Civil Rights (Bethan Eynon, 919.590.9139, eynon@email.unc.edu). Time permitting, Center for Civil Rights attorneys will post updates on this blog as the trial progresses.
Read More... (On July 22, CCR represents Plaintiffs in historic Pitt County school desegregation trial)
Posted by Taiyyaba A. Qureshi on Wed. July 17, 2013 2:05 PM
Categories: Education, Pitt County, Race Discrimination, Segregation
The Center was invited to write for Teach For America's blog, Pass
the Chalk, to commemorate the Brown v. Board of Education anniversary.
We wrote about the spectrum of segregation and resegregation in North
Carolina as an example of this disturbing nationwide trend.
Halifax community members at a rally for education equality
Although racial segregation in public schools was held unconstitutional in 1954 by
Brown v. Board of Education,
massive resistance by segregationist state and local governments
prevented meaningful implementation of this landmark ruling for over a
decade. It wasn’t until the late 1960s, and in response to community
activism, litigation, and intervention by the federal government, that
the doors of educational opportunity were finally forced open to create
equal access for children of color.
Today, almost 60 years after
Brown,
its promise of an integrated and equal education remains unfulfilled. The cross-exposure of black and white students—an important measure of integration—peaked in the mid-1980s but, by 2000 was even lower than in 1968.
Read More... (59 Years after Brown vs. Board of Ed, the Spectrum of Segregation Persists)
Posted by Taiyyaba A. Qureshi on Thu. May 16, 2013 12:09 PM
Categories: Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Education, Halifax County, Pitt County, Race Discrimination, Segregation, Wake County
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Pitt County Board of Education's petition for an en banc hearing in Everett v. Pitt County Schools. On June 5, 2012, the Court of Appeals denied the petition, stating that no judge called for the case to be reheard. Read the court's denial of en banc rehearing (
).
On June 13, 2012, the Court issued a Mandate stating: "The judgment of this court, entered May 7, 2012, takes effect today."
Read the Mandate (). The Mandate is a clear affirmation that the Court of Appeals expects significant and immediate action from the district court.
The Court's May 2012 decision vacated the district court’s August
2011 decision and remanded the case for reconsideration with the correct burden of proof. The Mandate reaffirms the court's duty to correctly apply the burden of proof on the school board and hold PCS to its affirmative duty.
Read More... (Update: COA Denies En Banc Petition and issues Mandate - District court must implement Opinion favoring Plaintiffs)
Posted by Taiyyaba A. Qureshi on Wed. June 13, 2012 9:22 AM
Categories: Education, Pitt County, Race Discrimination
Last summer, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill to reduce the number of district-based seats on the Pitt County School Board from 12 to 6, and to add a new at-large seat. Because of its long history of race discrimination in voting, Pitt County is one of 40 counties in the state subject to Section Five of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 requires covered jurisdictions receive preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice of any proposed voting changes, to ensure that minority voting rights are not harmed by the change.
On April 30, 2012, the Justice Department rejected Pitt County Schools' preclearance submission, specially citing the retrogressive impact and discriminatory effect of the voting changes.
Read More... (Another Victory in Pitt County: US DOJ rejects electoral changes to School Board)
Posted by Mark Dorosin on Fri. May 18, 2012 4:42 PM
Categories: Community Inclusion, Pitt County, Voting Rights
Plaintiffs and concerned citizens, Center Attorneys, and UNC Law Students outside the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals after January 2012 oral arguments in Everett v. Pitt County Schools
On May 7, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a
published opinion in Everett et al. v.
Pitt County Board of Education affirming the efforts of African American parents
and community members to stop Pitt County Schools from implementing its 2011-12
student reassignment. The UNC Center for
Civil Rights represents the Pitt Coalition for Educating Black Children and several
individual parents of children attending Pitt County Schools.
“This is a great victory
for the people,” said Mark Dorosin, Managing Attorney at the Center. “The court
affirmed what decades of desegregation law, from Brown vs. Board of Ed. to the present, require: that a school
district which remains under a desegregation order has an affirmative duty to
eliminate the vestiges of racial discrimination, and until the court rules that
the district has fulfilled that duty, current racial disparities are presumed
to be the result of the past unconstitutional conduct.”
Read More... (Fourth Circuit COA Rules in Favor of Pitt County Coalition for Educating Black Children)
Posted by Mark Dorosin on Mon. May 7, 2012 5:19 PM
Categories: Education, Law Students, Pitt County, Race Discrimination, Segregation
Plaintiff-Appellants, Center attorneys, and UNC Law Students stand outside Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA after oral arguments in Everett v. Pitt County Schools
The UNC Center for Civil Rights argued a critical school desegregation case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, Jan. 26. Representing several African American parents and the Pitt Coalition for the Education of Black Children, the center argued that the Pitt County (N.C.) School District's 2011-2012 student assignment plan increases segregation and racial isolation in the county's schools and violates the school board's affirmative legal duty to remedy the vestiges of race discrimination in the district.
Read More... (UNC Center for Civil Rights Argues Pitt County School Desegregation Case in US Court of Appeals)
Posted by Mark Dorosin on Fri. January 27, 2012 12:27 PM
Categories: Education, Law Students, Pitt County, Race Discrimination, Segregation