School Segregation Then and Now: Has Much Changed?

A look at desegregation efforts since Brown v. Board.

Ruby Bridges - In 1960, at the age of six, Bridges integrated the William Frantz elementary school in New Orleans, becoming the first Black child in the country to attend a white school. Bridges has since dedicated her life to activism, promoting "the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences." She famously said, "Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it." (Photo: Times-Picayune /Landov) 
University of Mississippi - Riots broke out as James H. Meredith was escorted to the University of Mississippi as the first African-American to attend the school on Oct. 1, 1962. Fifty years later on the night of President Obama’s re-election, the campus broke out in a riot with a crowd of 500 “agitated and angry” students shouting racial slurs and setting off fireworks near the Minority Student Union. (Photo: Marion S. Trikoso/Tehrkot /Landov)
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Seattle Public Schools - In 1978, district-wide busing began in Seattle public schools, but in recent years these same schools have gone back to being nearly all students of color. The district faces challenges in how it plans to approach integrating in the future. The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that it could no longer use race as a factor in placing students.  (Photo: David Ryder/Landov/Reuters)

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University of Mississippi - Riots broke out as James H. Meredith was escorted to the University of Mississippi as the first African-American to attend the school on Oct. 1, 1962. Fifty years later on the night of President Obama’s re-election, the campus broke out in a riot with a crowd of 500 “agitated and angry” students shouting racial slurs and setting off fireworks near the Minority Student Union. (Photo: Marion S. Trikoso/Tehrkot /Landov)

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