High Court Agrees to Review College Desegregation Rules

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide how its landmark 1954 school desegregation case and its successors apply to formerly segregated public colleges and universities.

The court next term will rule whether higher education is subject to a looser desegregation standard or must meet virtually the same requirement placed on public schools to remove all “vestiges” of prior state-mandated segregation.

The court agreed to review a decision of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that Mississippi has gone as far as it must in dismantling its formerly segregated eight-college state system.

The 5th Circuit said the state met its legal responsibilities merely by “discontinuing prior discriminatory practices and adopting and implementing good-faith, race-neutral policies and procedures.”

The Administration and a group of black Mississippi residents asked the high court to pronounce a tougher standard.

The Justice Department said there is “considerable confusion” among the states over their responsibilities, and asked for a “binding legal standard.”

In its 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., decision, the court declared that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.