The Rev. William J. Barber, leader of the state NAACP, is arrested outside the Wake County Schools administration building in Raleigh. (Jim R. Bounds, Associated Press / July 20, 2010)
Reporting from Raleigh, N.C. —
This vibrant Southern capital has enjoyed a reputation for first-rate schools that long ago shed a segregated legacy. Schools in poor urban neighborhoods and prosperous suburbs alike have been praised as racially mixed and academically sound.
But the school board's move to abandon its diversity policy in favor of neighborhood schools has prompted accusations of "re-segregation" and thrown the district into turmoil. Police attend board meetings, where some protesters have been arrested — including the president of the state NAACP, who is now barred from the premises.
Opponents say ending efforts to balance student bodies by race and socioeconomic status will lead Wake County back to the days of Jim Crow. The North Carolina NAACP filed a civil rights complaint, triggering an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. A national accreditation firm is investigating too, warning that the acrimony could threaten quality education.
Even TV comedian Stephen Colbert weighed in, saying the district's "Three R's" were "Readin', Ritin' and Resegregatin'."
Colbert's mockery and the two investigations were mentioned ruefully by several Wake County residents at an emotional public hearing last month.
"We used to be held up as a national model," resident Jamie Dunston said. "Now we're being held up … as objects of ridicule and disgust, and rightfully so."
Other residents thanked the board for restoring parental choice by allowing children to attend neighborhood schools. Several described long bus rides and lack of parental involvement in schools far from home.
"You're giving us back local control and quality family time," one parent said.
Wake County has become a test of diversity policies nationwide.
"This is really striking," said professor Gary Orfield, who studies school desegregation as co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. "I think it will call into question how useful this model is. It's a shame — it's been so successful."
In a 2009 book, "Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh," Syracuse University professor Gerald Grant called Wake County schools the nation's best for racial and economic diversity.
But the board's 5-to-4 conservative majority, elected in November 2009, says the diversity policy is an unwelcome government intrusion that has led to constant shuffling of students while failing to help low-performing pupils, many of them black.
"We are focused on actually educating kids rather than just distributing kids," said John Tedesco, part of the majority.
The board's most vocal opponent is the Rev. William J. Barber, president of the state chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. The fiery minister has condemned the conservative majority as "the gang of five," which he says is bent on resegregating schools and flouting Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that "separate but equal" schools were inherently unequal, and thus unconstitutional.
"Segregation didn't work then," Barber said. "It won't work now."
In June, Barber led a protest at a board meeting, where demonstrators sang and chanted while taking over board members' seats during a recess. Four protesters were arrested, including Barber, who was led away in handcuffs.
Banned from school property, he was arrested and handcuffed again outside a board meeting in July after leading a march to the site. Inside, 16 other protesters were arrested after seizing control of the podium and chanting, "Forward forever! Backwards never!"
As demonstrators scuffled with police, one officer mistook a board member for a protester and briefly pinned his arm.
The sprawling Wake County Public School System serves 143,000 students in 163 schools spread over 800 square miles. The largest district in the state and the 18th-largest nationwide, it is 49.5% white, 24.8% black, 14.6% Latino and 6% Asian.
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wake county residents, quality family time, william j barber, poor urban neighborhoods, gary orfield, wake county schools, lack of parental involvement, state naacp, parental involvement in schools, school desegregation, stephen colbert, tv comedian, diversity policies, national accreditation, diversity policy, neighborhood schools, civil rights complaint, schools administration, u s department of education, professor gary
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