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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Board of Education of Oklahoma City Public Schools v. Dowell
Citation:
498 U.S. 237 (1991)Facts
In 1961, Black students and parents sued the Oklahoma City School Board to end de jure segregation. The District Court found in 1963 that Oklahoma City was operating a dual school system intentionally segregated by race. In 1972, after previous remedial efforts failed, the court ordered implementation of the “Finger Plan,” which used busing to achieve integration. After complying for five years, the Board moved to close the case, and in 1977, the District Court issued an order finding the district unitary but did not explicitly dissolve the decree. In 1984, facing demographic changes that increased busing burdens on young Black children, the Board adopted the Student Reassignment Plan (SRP), which returned to neighborhood schools for grades K-4. This resulted in 11 of 64 elementary schools becoming more than 90% Black. When plaintiffs challenged this plan, the District Court initially refused to reopen the case but was reversed by the Tenth Circuit. On remand, the District Court dissolved the decree, finding that demographic changes made the Finger Plan unworkable and that current residential segregation resulted from private decisions and economics, not school segregation.
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