Introduction
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the present study was to critically analyze post-court mandated school desegregation in Richmond Public Schools (RPS) after Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr.’s decision in Bradley v. Board (1986) ended cross-town busing declaring the system unitary, meaning it was no longer operating as a dual school system for blacks and whites. Furthermore, the present study analyzed the management of RPS from 1986 through 2006 concerning the socio-economic conditions of a resegregated city. Twenty years of management decisions, community reactions, demographic changes, academic performance and related controversies from 1986 through 2006 were critically examined to provide an analysis of how RPS grappled with the after effects of the court mandated school desegregation process. The effort was to tell the story of how RPS and the community (i.e., its educators, policy makers, residents, parents, former students and others) responded to the end of the desegregation process between 1986 and 2006. The decisions and actions of RPS under unitary status were examined to illustrate the history after Judge Merhige’s 1986 decree. Moreover, conditions pertaining to race and class were critically analyzed to help expand understanding and to clarify meaning of this period.
Research Questions
Research questions used to help drive the present study were:
1. What role did de jure and de facto school desegregation in Virginia play in the development of RPS since 1986?
2. What was the relationship of race and class in the perception of people working in RPS from 1986 through 2006?
3. How did people associated with RPS deal with the results of school desegregation after the end of cross-town busing in 1986?
Historical Background
The 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, (Brown 1) stated that segregated schools deprive minority children of equal access to education (Brown v. Board, 1954). From 1954 through 1959, the Brown decision met “massive resistance” in Richmond, which reflected Virginia’s official political state-wide posture of resisting the integration of public schools.
The “passive resistance” era of 1959 through 1970 prolonged school
desegregation. Deliberate decisions and actions taken by the Richmond Public School Board to delay school desegregation prompted court intervention. In 1962, Bradley v. Richmond School Board sought a racially nondiscriminatory school system in Richmond with the elimination of dual attendance zones for black and whites. After minimal success in the 1960’s with freedom of choice desegregation plans, Judge Merhige
Chesterfield and Henrico into one single school district in 1970. This suggestion was in a response to the outmigration of whites and middle-class blacks to neighboring counties.
Merhige’s suggestion met opposition, and in Bradley v. Board (1970) he
mandated Plan III to bus students across town to desegregate Richmond’s public schools. Judge Merhige continued to seek the merger of the City of Richmond and the Counties of Chesterfield and Henrico until it was rejected on appeal to the United States Supreme Court in 1973. This upheld the U.S. 4th Circuit Court’s decision in Bradley v. Board, (1973) to continue cross-town busing in Richmond. The results of the cross-town busing process in Richmond exacerbated segregation and stymied the opportunities of a growing black underclass. By 1986, RPS had become 87% black, and by default was no longer operating as a dual system for blacks and whites; Judge Merhige declared the district a unitary system in Bradley v. Board (1986), thus ending court mandated school
desegregation.
Findings
The intent of the present study was to help fill the gap in the literature pertaining to RPS during the years of unitary status from 1986 through 2006. The analysis of archival information, historical documents, interviewee testimony and important secondary sources regarding this period yielded several findings. These findings were presented through the critical analysis of primary documents such as school board minutes, newspaper articles, court decisions, government documents, school board
policies and directives, census data, student demographics and test scores and other pertinent documents.
Preparations for Unitary Status
Measures were taken for managing a resegregated school system prior to Judge Merhige’s Bradley v. Board (1986) court decree. The decisions made in preparation of the district’s unitary status were important for transitioning from cross-town busing. Prior to 1986, cross-town busing was reduced in two phases. The first phase resulted in court-approved modifications to Plan III in Bradley v. Board (1970). The changes to Plan III included the 1977 K-5 Plan allowing students of two elementary schools to attend their neighborhood school, and the 1979 adaptation of Plan III into Plan G, which consolidated 7 high schools into 3 complexes. In the second phase, RPS realigned their Pupil Placement Plan in anticipation of Judge Merhige’s 1986 decision to end cross-town busing in Richmond. By 1986, the district was no longer held as a dual system as it was prior to cross-town busing. With the changeover to unitary status in 1986, the district set out to redefine itself by attempting to recreate neighborhood schools for children to attend in their attendance zones, which were previously divided for desegregation purposes. Open enrollment for students to attend any school in the city was also
promoted from 1986 through 1991 to lure whites and middle-class blacks back to RPS. These efforts were a reaction to the fact that by 1986, RPS had become 87% black and 60% impoverished.
Richmond Public School Board minutes document the marketing efforts of the district to retain and attract white and middle-class black students during and after cross-