Louisiana Told to Desegregate Its Universities

Louisiana on Wednesday became the second Southern state ordered by a federal judge to overhaul its university system, where whites and blacks still largely attend separate colleges.

“Simply put, the dubious ideal of ‘separate but equal,’ whether endorsed by whites or blacks, is an anachronism that our society no longer tolerates,” U.S. District Judge Charles Schwartz said in his ruling.

Two black universities, Southern and Grambling State, have objected vehemently to the plan, arguing that black colleges have a special role in educating blacks. Instead of being forced to merge into the predominantly white college system, they had sought greater funding to make up for historic bias.

Schwartz’s order essentially reinstates one he made in 1989. That was overturned when an appellate court ruled in a similar case that Mississippi had done enough to integrate its university system. But then that case was overturned by a landmark Supreme Court ruling this year that said Mississippi’s higher-education system remained separate and unequal. The state was ordered to actively eliminate the vestiges of past forced segregation.

As a result, Schwartz reimposed his original order that seeks to dismantle a segregated system by consolidating Louisiana’s 17 public colleges and universities.

In Mississippi, the current proposed remedy for the segregated system involves shutting down one historically black school and merging another with a white school.

In Louisiana, no school is to close under the judge’s plan. What is to occur is the state’s four separate higher education boards are to be consolidated under one “super board.”

Louisiana Atty. Gen. Richard Ieyoub has said he will appeal any ruling that the state is operating a segregated system.