In the books she read growing up, Nancy Jennings saw a lot of school buses cruising across the pages. She had always wanted to ride in one, but Jennings lived just a few blocks from her neighborhood school in southwest Detroit so she usually walked to class.

When Jennings finally got the chance to step foot on a bus, her 10-year-old mind had no idea just how significant the moment was.

In January 1976, Jennings, who is biracial, was among the students in Detroit bused to desegregate public schools.

At the time, Detroit’s classrooms were becoming increasingly segregated. Racist practices – such as restrictive covenants that prevented Black residents from buying or leasing property, and policies that denied them housing loans – created and maintained segregated neighborhoods. White residents were fleeing the city for the suburbs, in part because of the 1967 Detroit uprising, a violent rebellion in response to the systemic racism and police brutality Black residents faced.

The Impact of Milliken v. Bradley on School Segregation

Jennings’ bus ride, from one part of the city to another, wouldn’t change the trajectory of school segregation in metro Detroit. A landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court just two years before had drastically limited what could be done to address segregated schools. In Milliken v. Bradley, the court ruled 5-4 that suburban districts were not responsible for school segregation in Detroit and could not be forced to be part of the remedy. The decision ended the possibility of cross-district busing.

The ruling, which came 50 years ago this month, has had profound and lasting effects on segregated classrooms in Detroit and across the country. Legal scholars say it eroded the progress made after Brown v. Board of Education, another landmark court decision that declared in 1954 that state-mandated racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional.

Many social scientists who study educational equity lament the decision in Milliken to this day. They believe this type of court-ordered desegregation policy was a necessary solution for segregated schools, a persistent problem that often leaves students and teachers with fewer resources.

Read the full article about segregation in Detroit schools by Robyn Vincent at Chalkbeat.