Morgan v. Hennigan
Encyclopedia
Morgan v. Hennigan
The case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston
, Massachusetts
during the 1970s was Morgan v. Hennigan. On 14 March 1972 the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 black parents and 44 children. Tallulah Morgan headed the list of plaintiff
s and James Hennigan, then chair of the School Committee, was listed as the main defendant
. The case was called Morgan v. Hennigan. The plaintiffs' legal team decided to pursue the case as a violation of the U.S. Constitution
. The School Committee was charged with violating the Thirteenth
and Fourteenth
Amendments as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act
. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants, the School Committee, the Board of Education, and the Education Commissioner, "ha[d] intentionally brought about and maintained racial segregation
in the Boston Public Schools." In short, while Boston was not experience "de jure
" segregation (segregation as a result of the law), it was experiencing "de facto
" segregation (segregation as a result of action). Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. was randomly assigned to the case. He did not make a decision until 21 June 1974. At that point he ruled that the city defendants had contributed to the "establishment of a dual school system," one for each race. Garrity's solution to the problem of segregation in Boston would become an explosive issue in the city. The main tactics for reducing segregation were redistricting and busing.
a major civil rights
movement swept the United States. The 1950s and 1960s were marked by sit-ins, protests, marches and boycott
s. By the 1960s this movement was brought to national attention as television created almost omniscient media coverage. The impact of the civil rights movement on Boston was magnified as the city's population of African American
s increased from approximately 42,659 in 1950 to approximately 104,429 in 1970.
In 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States
decided a case which would advance the civil rights movement and become a major precedent for the case in Boston. In Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
, the Supreme Court found that public school segregation "denie[d] to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment." The judges relied on sociological evidence which showed that separate educational facilities were detrimental to the development of black children. When the decision was implemented in Little Rock, Arkansas
the white backlash shocked the nation and the world. While the Brown case put an end to "de jure" segregation, "de facto" segregation would become the focus of activists and legislators in Boston.
In 1961, the Education Committee of the NAACP, led by Ruth Batson
, began a series of meetings with Boston's School Committee in order to make the members admit that de facto segregation existed in Boston's schools. Batson's argument rested on facts: thirteen schools in Boston were at least ninety percent black and the budgets provided for these schools were $125 per pupil less than the average budget for a white school in Boston. The School Committee refused to concede this point. As a result the NAACP fought back with the traditional methods of the civil rights movement: boycotts and protests. Almost as soon as this movement began a counter-revolution rose up against the desegregation
of Boston's Schools.
Even as the School Committee denied any segregation in Boston they supported policies that increased racial imbalance in public schools. Rather than send white students to majority black schools, the Committee constructed portable classroom
s at already overcrowded white schools. At South Boston High, an all white school, enrollment was over the limit by 676 students during the 1971-72 school year. Girls High, 92% black, was under enrolled by 532 places. Boston's system of feeder school
s was probably the most efficient method of segregation utilized by the Committee. Under this system graduates from middle school
s (ending with grade 8) went to high school
s with grades 9-12. Graduates from junior high schools (ending with grade 9) went to high schools with grades 10-12. Junior highs tended to be in white neighborhoods while middle schools tended to be in black neighborhoods. As if this system in itself was not enough to prove that segregation existed in Boston, the School Committee incriminated itself by converting two of the largest black junior highs in the city into middle schools for no practical reason. After a decade of protests and arguments and evasions by the Boston School Committee the issue finally came to a head with the 1972 court case.
One important legal precedent for the Boston case was the U.S. Supreme Court case, Keyes v. School District No. 1. In this case black and Hispanic parents from Denver, Colorado
filed suit against all Denver schools due to racial segregation. The 1973 decision on this case, written by Justice William J. Brennan, was key in defining de facto segregation. Brennan found that although there were no official laws supporting segregation in Denver, "the Board, through its actions over a period of years, intentionally created and maintained the segregated character of the core city schools." The issue of "intent would become a key factor in the Boston case.
Another important precedent was the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
case. In 1969 the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district in North Carolina
was segregated by law. It was no surprise that a district court case regarding this issue found in favor of the black plaintiffs, but the important part of this case is the remedy ordered by Federal District Judge James McMillan. McMillan ordered extensive busing and regrouping of schools. In an appeal the Judge's orders were found to "exceed...his authority." However, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice Warren Burger argued that the equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment gave federal judges a wide berth of authority in implementing desegregation. Burger supported the call for busing. This precedent would give Garrity virtually omnipotent power of implementation in Boston.
s, the exchange of school children between communities was dangerous. Ms. Gloria Joyner, a black mother of two high school students, rode the school bus from Roxbury to South Boston at the start of the 1974 school year. She described the escort required to keep the buses and children safe from white mobs: "our four buses were escorted by three police cruisers, 10 motorcycles, and a state helicopter overhead looking for rooftop snipers." Buses were met with hurled stones and racial slurs.
On 20 November South Boston High School erupted in fights between students. The chaos delayed the start of the school day. The catalyst had been a white male student letting a door slam in the face of a black female student. One teacher, Ione Malloy, explained the atmosphere of the school at this point, "This school is DEATH. The mood of the school is black." Fights were frequent. The climax of violence in South Boston came on 11 December when a white student, Michael Faith, was stabbed. News of the stabbing
spread through the community and by one o'clock 1,500 people surrounded the school waiting for the black students to leave. Bricks and bottles were hurled at police officer
s. Finally, three decoy buses came out and the mob went after them. Black students exited through the back of the building and escaped.
district open to all students regardless of residence. It also included the partnering of public schools to twenty community colleges and universities in order to improve the quality of education in the former. The plan would call for the busing of 24,000 students. In addition to all this the plan also shifted focus to elementary
and middle school aged students.
While the School Committee still claimed not to accept any plan which called for forced busing, this plan was met with less instances of violence than the first phase. In May 1977 Garrity released Phase III which was meant to shift control of implementation back to the Boston school system. Despite the School Committee's enduring resistance to busing, the constituents of Boston came to the slow realization that the Committee members themselves were the "architects of inferior schools." In the November 1977 school board elections three vocal anti-busing School Committee members were defeated while John O'Bryant became the first black man to be elected to the Committee in the 20th century. In 1982 Judge Garrity official turned over monitoring of desegregation to the State Board of Education.
were not lasting. As late ad 1989 Boston's School Committee continued to circumvent racial balance regulations. At a meeting in December of that year the Committee discussed racial statistics. One member made a telling inquiry about the Committee's policy: "We are excluding the Latin Schools because the numbers of students are predominantly white, is that it?" Another member provided the official response to that question, that Latin schools were not incorporated because their admissions were different. In the 2003-2004 school year the majority of black and Latino
students in Boston attended schools that were on average approximately 10 percent white. In addition to this, in 2003 of all the Boston schools found to be struggling and in need of "corrective action," 90 percent were non-white. While white flight
certainly accounts for much of this "resegregation," it was also found that since 1999 white students had attended schools that had become progressively whiter every year.
The case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
during the 1970s was Morgan v. Hennigan. On 14 March 1972 the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 black parents and 44 children. Tallulah Morgan headed the list of plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
s and James Hennigan, then chair of the School Committee, was listed as the main defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
. The case was called Morgan v. Hennigan. The plaintiffs' legal team decided to pursue the case as a violation of the U.S. Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
. The School Committee was charged with violating the Thirteenth
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On...
and Fourteenth
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
Amendments as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants, the School Committee, the Board of Education, and the Education Commissioner, "ha[d] intentionally brought about and maintained racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in the Boston Public Schools." In short, while Boston was not experience "de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
" segregation (segregation as a result of the law), it was experiencing "de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
" segregation (segregation as a result of action). Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. was randomly assigned to the case. He did not make a decision until 21 June 1974. At that point he ruled that the city defendants had contributed to the "establishment of a dual school system," one for each race. Garrity's solution to the problem of segregation in Boston would become an explosive issue in the city. The main tactics for reducing segregation were redistricting and busing.
Background
Following World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
a major civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
movement swept the United States. The 1950s and 1960s were marked by sit-ins, protests, marches and boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
s. By the 1960s this movement was brought to national attention as television created almost omniscient media coverage. The impact of the civil rights movement on Boston was magnified as the city's population of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s increased from approximately 42,659 in 1950 to approximately 104,429 in 1970.
In 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decided a case which would advance the civil rights movement and become a major precedent for the case in Boston. In Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
, the Supreme Court found that public school segregation "denie[d] to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment." The judges relied on sociological evidence which showed that separate educational facilities were detrimental to the development of black children. When the decision was implemented in Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
the white backlash shocked the nation and the world. While the Brown case put an end to "de jure" segregation, "de facto" segregation would become the focus of activists and legislators in Boston.
In 1961, the Education Committee of the NAACP, led by Ruth Batson
Ruth Batson
Ruth M. Batson was an American civil rights and education activist.Batson's career began with the NAACP Boston Branch...
, began a series of meetings with Boston's School Committee in order to make the members admit that de facto segregation existed in Boston's schools. Batson's argument rested on facts: thirteen schools in Boston were at least ninety percent black and the budgets provided for these schools were $125 per pupil less than the average budget for a white school in Boston. The School Committee refused to concede this point. As a result the NAACP fought back with the traditional methods of the civil rights movement: boycotts and protests. Almost as soon as this movement began a counter-revolution rose up against the desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
of Boston's Schools.
Even as the School Committee denied any segregation in Boston they supported policies that increased racial imbalance in public schools. Rather than send white students to majority black schools, the Committee constructed portable classroom
Portable classroom
A portable classroom A portable classroom A portable classroom (in Australian English a demountable and often referred to as a demountable, a "Terrapin" or a "Portakabin" (after the two companies) in the UK and called a prefab in Ireland (not to be confused with a prefabricated building) is a...
s at already overcrowded white schools. At South Boston High, an all white school, enrollment was over the limit by 676 students during the 1971-72 school year. Girls High, 92% black, was under enrolled by 532 places. Boston's system of feeder school
Feeder school
Feeder school is a name applied to schools, colleges, universities, or other educational institutions that provide a significant number of graduates who intend to continue their studies at specific schools, or even in specific fields....
s was probably the most efficient method of segregation utilized by the Committee. Under this system graduates from middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
s (ending with grade 8) went to high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s with grades 9-12. Graduates from junior high schools (ending with grade 9) went to high schools with grades 10-12. Junior highs tended to be in white neighborhoods while middle schools tended to be in black neighborhoods. As if this system in itself was not enough to prove that segregation existed in Boston, the School Committee incriminated itself by converting two of the largest black junior highs in the city into middle schools for no practical reason. After a decade of protests and arguments and evasions by the Boston School Committee the issue finally came to a head with the 1972 court case.
Legal Precedents
One of the reasons Judge Garrity took so long to deliver his decision in this case was because he wanted to make sure that what he decided was backed up by legal precedent.One important legal precedent for the Boston case was the U.S. Supreme Court case, Keyes v. School District No. 1. In this case black and Hispanic parents from Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
filed suit against all Denver schools due to racial segregation. The 1973 decision on this case, written by Justice William J. Brennan, was key in defining de facto segregation. Brennan found that although there were no official laws supporting segregation in Denver, "the Board, through its actions over a period of years, intentionally created and maintained the segregated character of the core city schools." The issue of "intent would become a key factor in the Boston case.
Another important precedent was the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 was an important United States Supreme Court case dealing with the busing of students to promote integration in public schools...
case. In 1969 the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
was segregated by law. It was no surprise that a district court case regarding this issue found in favor of the black plaintiffs, but the important part of this case is the remedy ordered by Federal District Judge James McMillan. McMillan ordered extensive busing and regrouping of schools. In an appeal the Judge's orders were found to "exceed...his authority." However, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice Warren Burger argued that the equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment gave federal judges a wide berth of authority in implementing desegregation. Burger supported the call for busing. This precedent would give Garrity virtually omnipotent power of implementation in Boston.
Decision and Implementation
Judge Garrity forbade the School Committee from violating the Racial Imbalance Act in any way, beginning construction of any new school or portable class room or transferring white or black teachers in order to increase racial imbalance. Garrity's plan for implementation of his orders was extreme thanks to the authority granted by the Swann case. Garrity explained that "neutral conduct [was] no longer constitutionally sufficient"; the School Committee would have to actively work to reverse the segregation of Boston schools. Until the Committee had come up with its own plan, Garrity decided to enforce a State Board of Education plan, formulated following the passage of the Racial Imbalance Act.The Plan
The plan was scheduled to take effect on the first day of school in September 1974. It would reduce the number of majority black schools from sixty-eight to forty-four as well as reduce the number of black students attending imbalanced schools from approximately 30,000 to 10,000. The Board's plan was based on two basic methods: redistricting and busing. The plan would also replace the feeder system of junior and middle schools with a single middle school program.Reaction
Garrity's decision was met with hostility, fear and violence. In a city heavily stratified into ethnic enclaveEthnic enclave
An ethnic enclave is an ethnic community which retains some cultural distinction from a larger, surrounding area, it may be a neighborhood, an area or an administrative division based on ethnic groups. Sometimes an entire city may have such a feel. Usually the enclave revolves around businesses...
s, the exchange of school children between communities was dangerous. Ms. Gloria Joyner, a black mother of two high school students, rode the school bus from Roxbury to South Boston at the start of the 1974 school year. She described the escort required to keep the buses and children safe from white mobs: "our four buses were escorted by three police cruisers, 10 motorcycles, and a state helicopter overhead looking for rooftop snipers." Buses were met with hurled stones and racial slurs.
On 20 November South Boston High School erupted in fights between students. The chaos delayed the start of the school day. The catalyst had been a white male student letting a door slam in the face of a black female student. One teacher, Ione Malloy, explained the atmosphere of the school at this point, "This school is DEATH. The mood of the school is black." Fights were frequent. The climax of violence in South Boston came on 11 December when a white student, Michael Faith, was stabbed. News of the stabbing
Stabbing
A stabbing is penetration with a sharp or pointed object at close range. Stab connotes purposeful action, as by an assassin or murderer, but it is also possible to accidentally stab oneself or others.Stabbing differs from slashing or cutting in that the motion of the object used in a stabbing...
spread through the community and by one o'clock 1,500 people surrounded the school waiting for the black students to leave. Bricks and bottles were hurled at police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
s. Finally, three decoy buses came out and the mob went after them. Black students exited through the back of the building and escaped.
Master Plan
When the Boston School Committee repeatedly failed to submit an acceptable plan for desegregation, Garrity created a committee to formulate a “Master’s Plan.” This plan was submitted in May 1975 and would become Phase II. The plan created a citywide magnet schoolMagnet school
In education in the United States, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools.There are magnet schools at the...
district open to all students regardless of residence. It also included the partnering of public schools to twenty community colleges and universities in order to improve the quality of education in the former. The plan would call for the busing of 24,000 students. In addition to all this the plan also shifted focus to elementary
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
and middle school aged students.
While the School Committee still claimed not to accept any plan which called for forced busing, this plan was met with less instances of violence than the first phase. In May 1977 Garrity released Phase III which was meant to shift control of implementation back to the Boston school system. Despite the School Committee's enduring resistance to busing, the constituents of Boston came to the slow realization that the Committee members themselves were the "architects of inferior schools." In the November 1977 school board elections three vocal anti-busing School Committee members were defeated while John O'Bryant became the first black man to be elected to the Committee in the 20th century. In 1982 Judge Garrity official turned over monitoring of desegregation to the State Board of Education.
Results
For more than a decade Boston's school system was degraded by violence, hatred and a breakdown of education. The results of this struggle for equalityEquality
Equality may refer to:Social concepts* Egalitarianism, the belief that all/some people ought to be treated equally* Equality before the law* Equal opportunity* Equality of outcome or equality of condition* Gender equality* Racial equality...
were not lasting. As late ad 1989 Boston's School Committee continued to circumvent racial balance regulations. At a meeting in December of that year the Committee discussed racial statistics. One member made a telling inquiry about the Committee's policy: "We are excluding the Latin Schools because the numbers of students are predominantly white, is that it?" Another member provided the official response to that question, that Latin schools were not incorporated because their admissions were different. In the 2003-2004 school year the majority of black and Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
students in Boston attended schools that were on average approximately 10 percent white. In addition to this, in 2003 of all the Boston schools found to be struggling and in need of "corrective action," 90 percent were non-white. While white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
certainly accounts for much of this "resegregation," it was also found that since 1999 white students had attended schools that had become progressively whiter every year.