Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision striking down racially segregated public schools, one small Mississippi district had resisted—until now.
A federal court has ordered the 3,600-student Cleveland, Miss., district, where middle and high school students are still separated largely on the basis of race, to desegregate its schools.
Under the order, the district must merge its historically black and virtually all-white high schools and two middle schools to form one high school and one middle school.