Black History Commons^™

School Desegregation From Brown To Fordice, 1954-1992: A Case Study In American Individualism, Albert Leon Samuels

Department of Political Science and Geography Faculty Publications

In United States v. Fordice (1992), the Supreme Court declared that racially nondiscriminatory admissions and hiring policies alone failed to satisfy the state of Mississippi's "affirmative duty" to dismantle a previously de jure system of segregated higher education. However, the justices declined to define precisely what the state must do to satisfy its constitutional obligations, leaving in its wake a host of unresolved questions. Of particular concern to many African Americans is the fact that the future status of public black universities was left in the balance.

Using a case study approach, this dissertation argues that higher education desegregation cannot …