logo
Trump officials are vowing to end school desegregation orders. Some parents say they're still needed

Trump officials are vowing to end school desegregation orders. Some parents say they're still needed

Hindustan Times3 days ago

FERRIDAY, La. — Even at a glance, the differences are obvious. The walls of Ferriday High School are old and worn, surrounded by barbed wire. Just a few miles away, Vidalia High School is clean and bright, with a new library and a crisp blue 'V' painted on orange brick.
Ferriday High is 90% Black. Vidalia High is 62% white.
For Black families, the contrast between the schools suggests 'we're not supposed to have the finer things,' said Brian Davis, a father in Ferriday. 'It's almost like our kids don't deserve it,' he said.
The schools are part of Concordia Parish, which was ordered to desegregate 60 years ago and remains under a court-ordered plan to this day. Yet there's growing momentum to release the district — and dozens of others — from decades-old orders that some call obsolete.
In a remarkable reversal, the Justice Department said it plans to start unwinding court-ordered desegregation plans dating to the Civil Rights Movement. Officials started in April, when they lifted a 1960s order in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish. Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department's civil rights division, has said others will 'bite the dust.'
It comes amid pressure from Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and his attorney general, who have called for all the state's remaining orders to be lifted. They describe the orders as burdens on districts and relics of a time when Black students were still forbidden from some schools.
The orders were always meant to be temporary — school systems can be released if they demonstrate they fully eradicated segregation. Decades later, that goal remains elusive, with stark racial imbalances persisting in many districts.
Civil rights groups say the orders are important to keep as tools to address the legacy of forced segregation — including disparities in student discipline, academic programs and teacher hiring. They point to cases like Concordia, where the decades-old order was used to stop a charter school from favoring white students in admissions.
'Concordia is one where it's old, but a lot is happening there,' said Deuel Ross, deputy director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 'That's true for a lot of these cases. They're not just sitting silently.'
Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, Concordia Parish rejected a Justice Department plan that would have ended its case if the district combined several majority white and majority Black elementary and middle schools.
At a town hall meeting, Vidalia residents vigorously opposed the plan, saying it would disrupt students' lives and expose their children to drugs and violence. An official from the Louisiana attorney general's office spoke against the proposal and said the Trump administration likely would change course on older orders.
Accepting the plan would have been a 'death sentence' for the district, said Paul Nelson, a former Concordia superintendent. White families would have fled to private schools or other districts, said Nelson, who wants the court order removed.
'It's time to move on,' said Nelson, who left the district in 2016. 'Let's start looking to build for the future, not looking back to what our grandparents may have gone through.'
At Ferriday High, athletic coach Derrick Davis supported combining schools in Ferriday and Vidalia. He said the district's disparities come into focus whenever his teams visit schools with newer sports facilities.
'It seems to me, if we'd all combine, we can all get what we need,' he said.
Others oppose merging schools if it's done solely for the sake of achieving racial balance. 'Redistricting and going to different places they're not used to ... it would be a culture shock to some people," said Ferriday's school resource officer, Marcus Martin, who like Derrick Davis is Black.
The district's current superintendent and school board did not respond to requests for comment.
Concordia is among more than 120 districts across the South that remain under desegregation orders from the 1960s and '70s, including about a dozen in Louisiana.
Calling the orders historical relics is 'unequivocally false,' said Shaheena Simons, who until April led the Justice Department section that oversees school desegregation cases.
'Segregation and inequality persist in our schools, and they persist in districts that are still under desegregation orders,' she said.
With court orders in place, families facing discrimination can reach out directly to the Justice Department or seek relief from the court. Otherwise, the only recourse is a lawsuit, which many families can't afford, Simons said.
In Concordia, the order played into a battle over a charter school that opened in 2013 on the former campus of an all-white private school. To protect the area's progress on racial integration, a judge ordered Delta Charter School to build a student body that reflected the district's racial demographics. But in its first year, the school was just 15% Black.
After a court challenge, Delta was ordered to give priority to Black students. Today, about 40% of its students are Black.
Desegregation orders have been invoked recently in other cases around the state. One led to an order to address disproportionately high rates of discipline for Black students, and in another a predominantly Black elementary school was relocated from a site close to a chemical plant.
The Trump administration was able to close the Plaquemines case with little resistance because the original plaintiffs are no longer involved — the Justice Department was litigating the case alone. Concordia and an unknown number of other districts are in the same situation, making them vulnerable to quick dismissals.
Concordia's case dates to 1965, when the area was strictly segregated and home to a violent offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. When Black families in Ferriday sued for access to all-white schools, the federal government intervened.
As the district integrated its schools, white families fled Ferriday. The district's schools came to reflect the demographics of their surrounding areas. Ferriday is mostly Black and low-income, while Vidalia is mostly white and takes in tax revenue from a hydroelectric plant. A third town in the district, Monterey, has a high school that's 95% white.
At the December town hall, Vidalia resident Ronnie Blackwell said the area 'feels like a Mayberry, which is great,' referring to the fictional Southern town from 'The Andy Griffith Show.' The federal government, he said, has 'probably destroyed more communities and school systems than it ever helped.'
Under its court order, Concordia must allow students in majority Black schools to transfer to majority white schools. It also files reports on teacher demographics and student discipline.
After failing to negotiate a resolution with the Justice Department, Concordia is scheduled to make its case that the judge should dismiss the order, according to court documents. Meanwhile, amid a wave of resignations in the federal government, all but two of the Justice Department lawyers assigned to the case have left.
Without court supervision, Brian Davis sees little hope for improvement.
'A lot of parents over here in Ferriday, they're stuck here because here they don't have the resources to move their kids from A to B," he said. 'You'll find schools like Ferriday — the term is, to me, slipping into darkness."
The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. is solely responsible for all content. Find 's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at .org.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Elon Musk regrets some of his posts on Trump: They went too far
Elon Musk regrets some of his posts on Trump: They went too far

India Today

time38 minutes ago

  • India Today

Elon Musk regrets some of his posts on Trump: They went too far

Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday took to his social media platform X and expressed regret about some of his posts regarding United States President Donald Trump last week. 'I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far,' Elon Musk posted on X on June week, Musk and Trump engaged in a public feud on social media over TV interviews and X posts after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO left his role in the government and criticised the Republican party's new tax bill proposal. Musk labelled the bill a "disgusting abomination" and urged political retribution against Republican lawmakers who backed Meanwhile, while speaking to NBC News, Trump warned Musk of "very serious consequences" if the tech billionaire follows through on funding primary challengers against sitting Republican lawmakers."He'll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that," Trump said, adding that he has no intentions of reconciliation with the SpaceX tensions reached their peak within days of Musk stepping down from the Trump administration. Notably, in one of his posts on X, Musk alleged that Donald Trump is connected to the Epstein list, suggesting this as a possible reason why the government has withheld the release of related files from the did not provide any evidence to support his claim, nor did he clarify which files he was referencing. In a follow-up post, he encouraged users to "mark this post for the future," asserting, "The truth will come out."advertisementBy Saturday morning, both posts had been deleted without explanation. Responding to the allegations in an interview with NBC, Trump dismissed them as "old news," stating, "Even Epstein's lawyer said I had nothing to do with it."

Elon Musk apologises for posts about Donald Trump, says ‘went too far…'
Elon Musk apologises for posts about Donald Trump, says ‘went too far…'

Mint

timean hour ago

  • Mint

Elon Musk apologises for posts about Donald Trump, says ‘went too far…'

Billionaire Elon Musk has posted on his social media platform X, expressing regret about some of his posts regarding United States President Donald Trump last week. Notably, Elon Musk and Donald Trump engaged in a public fued over TV interviews and X posts after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO left his role in the government and criticised the Republican party's new tax bill proposal. 'I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far,' Elon Musk posted on X on June 11. (This is a breaking story, more updates coming…)

‘They went too far': Musk walks back on anti-Trump campaign, says ‘regret' posting about US prez
‘They went too far': Musk walks back on anti-Trump campaign, says ‘regret' posting about US prez

First Post

timean hour ago

  • First Post

‘They went too far': Musk walks back on anti-Trump campaign, says ‘regret' posting about US prez

The trouble between the two started brewing days ago, when Musk denounced Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. The president initially held his tongue while Musk campaigned to torpedo the bill, saying it would add too much to the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt read more Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (left) and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump attend a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania (Source: AP) Tesla CEO Elon Musk has apologised for engaging in a war of words with US President Donald Trump last week, saying some of his comments 'went too far'. 'I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far,' he said on X. I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 11, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Last week, Trump and Musk took to Truth Social and X, respectively, to engage in a war of words that turned into a full-blown bashing of each other. The president has floated the idea of ending government subsidies and contracts for the companies run by Elon Musk as a way of saving money. The trouble between the two started brewing days ago, when Musk denounced Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. The president initially held his tongue while Musk campaigned to torpedo the bill, saying it would add too much to the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt. This is a breaking story. Refresh for updates.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store