NEWS

What is at stake? The Cleveland desegregation fight

Jimmie E. Gates
Clarion Ledger
  • See history of lawsuit, timeline at end of story.

Cleveland sits in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, a city of 12,300 residents that has been called the jewel of the Delta.

A Mississippi Certified Main Street Community sign welcomes visitors on Mississippi 8, also known as Sunflower Road, in the bustling downtown area. It’s a small city, but it has a vibrant feel. Only a few blocks from downtown on the campus of Delta State University is the ultra-modern Grammy Museum, which opened in March. It’s the only Grammy Museum outside of the original in Los Angeles.

ALSO READ: Grammy Museum Exhibit

Smithsonian magazine once dubbed Cleveland one of the best small communities in the United States.

But today, Cleveland finds itself thrust into the national spotlight, not for being a jewel in the Delta, but for a 50-year-old desegregation case. In Mississippi, there are 43 districts under desegregation orders, according to the U.S. Department of Justice records, but the Cleveland case is the only unresolved court case before a judge.

 A federal judge last month ordered Cleveland to consolidate its secondary schools to achieve desegregation. There are two high schools and two middle schools. One middle school and one high school —  D.M. Smith Middle School and East Side High — each has a student population of more than 99 percent black. The other high school, Cleveland High,  is about 47 percent white and 45 percent black. Other races make up the remainder.  The other junior high/middle school, Margaret Green Junior High, is roughly 53 percent black and 41 percent white, based upon Mississippi Department of Education 2015-2016 enrollment figures for the Cleveland School District.

For those in the midst of this half-century debate, the questions are what is to be gained by the consolidation, and what potentially could be lost. Beyond total integration, would students fair better in a system of combined resources? Or is there a fear that the consolidation would cause that magical tipping point of black to white students that could unravel what some have seen as the most integrated district in the Mississippi Delta, an area with a history of racial strife? And if consolidation is best, can the district financially afford to do it?

On Friday, the school district proposed combining the two high schools and the two middle schools by the fall of 2017 but reserved the right to appeal the May 13 order.

Over the summer, according to the plan, the district will form a multiracial advisory panel and start planning academic and extracurricular activities for the combined schools and assess facilities.

By fall, the district will work with the advisory panel to develop marketing plans. It also will review staffing and begin renovations.

In the winter, the district plans to notify students of their 2017-18 school assignments; hire or lay off staff members, as needed; and continue working on academic offerings. And by next spring, the district plans to complete renovations and give parents and students information about the merging schools.

The plan says the merged schools will open in August 2017, and the multiracial advisory panel will continue to address issues that arise.

No community consensus

Thomas Jones, who is white, and a student at the 47 percent white Cleveland High said he doesn’t like the idea of consolidating the high schools.

“I love East Side and I love Cleveland High,” Jones said. “I don’t think there is any point in consolidating. I think everything is fine as is. People are trying to make this a race issue. I don’t believe that. I think anybody has a choice where they want to go. If you want to go to East Side, you can go to East Side; if you want to go to Cleveland High, you can go to Cleveland High.”

U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson in 2013 put the freedom-of-choice plan in place where every child in grades 6-12 could opt for a school of choice through open enrollment.

Twenty-three-year-old Amber Hayes, who is white, said something may need to be done, but fears consolidating the high schools will lead to a loss of good teachers in the district. And based on the plan the district submitted Friday, that may happen. Hayes also agrees that with students free to choose the school they want to attend, mandating further integration may not be the best answer.

But Sentoria Brown, an African-American and  2006 graduate of the 99 percent-black East Side, said he is all for consolidating the schools. When pressed on why, he said he believes it will be better for Cleveland.

The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. District Judge Debra Brown say the two schools where the white students are concentrated are on the western side of town, traditionally looked upon as the white area, and the schools with the almost 100 percent black student enrollments are on the eastern side of town, considered the black area. The now abandoned railroad track is referred to as the black/white, east/west dividing line.

In 1969, a federal judge approved an attendance zone line for Cleveland High and East Side High with the old Illinois Central Railroad track as the dividing line. The attendance zone was scrapped, and the railroad track is just a relic.

Today, the roughly 3,700-student school district is about 67 percent black and 27 percent white. Some African-American parents in Cleveland say having their children attend classes with whites isn't a priority, but others say having a unified high school would allow their children access to more educational resources.

Cleveland School District Superintendent Jacqueline Thigpen, who is African-American, hasn't favored consolidating the high schools. She testified in federal court she prefers a district plan to consolidate the middle schools, but allow freedom of choice at high schools.

Leroy Byars, a former teacher and coach at East Side, supports the government plan for placing all middle school students at what is now East Side, the historically black side of town, but testified he doesn't believe white students will attend the new middle school.

Lenden Sanders, one of the current plaintiffs, has said she supports consolidation because it will allow every student to participate in all programs.

"The value in having a racially integrated school environment is that all programs will be under one roof," Sanders testified in the court hearing on the consolidation plans.

The U.S. Department of Justice says consolidating the high schools would lead to better utilization of resources in Cleveland, which is experiencing a declining population. The government says consolidating the high schools would lead to a school with approximately 1,098 students and a racial makeup of 62.9 percent African American, 32.4 percent white, and 4.7 percent other. Consolidation of middle schools would lead to a school with approximately 692 students and a racial makeup of 70.5 percent African-American, 26.2 percent white, and 3.3 other.

The unknowns

But will white students stay in the district is the question.

Cleveland attorney Ellis Turnage, who is the attorney for black plaintiffs in the case, said the Cleveland School District is probably the most integrated school district in the Delta, but if the consolidation plan is put in place, the unknown is whether there will be white flight from the school district.

Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Judson Thigpen III, who is white, said historically white flight from public schools has occurred in other school districts in Mississippi subjected to such a desegregation order. He said surrounding school districts including Greenville, Clarksdale and Indianola all lost white students after desegregation orders. Each of those districts have black student enrollment of 92 percent or more.

Thigpen said he doesn't know what will happen when secondary schools are consolidated.

"We have come a long way," Thigpen said in terms of race relations. "We don't know what the mindset of the people will be."

Susannah Wessel, a white Cleveland High graduate, said in Facebook posts that there has been open enrollment for a while now, so students can go to either school. She said the "historically white" high school the media keep talking about — the one she graduated from — is just that ... history. "The whites there now are the minority. I am not trying to say that consolidation is a bad thing, but I am very alarmed at how this is getting told in the national media because important details are deliberately being left out."

Brown addressed white flight in her opinion. She said to the extent white flight is a valid concern, the evidence on the issue is mixed. Brown said one expert's prediction of mass exodus of white students was flawed because it was based in part on 25-year-old survey data and case studies that failed to differentiate between consolidation and other forms of mandatory reassignment. An expert for the government predicted little to no white flight, based in part on an inaccurate count of local private schools, and failed to consider the impact of consolidation in similar districts, the judge said.

"The Court suspects that white enrollment loss related to consolidation, like most things, will fall somewhere between the two extremes," Brown said. "The district is likely to suffer some white enrollment loss as a result of consolidation. While this is a concern, it is insufficient, in the absence of an alternative constitutional plan, to reject consolidation. Rather, potential white enrollment loss is a problem that must be met with creativity. To this end, the U.S. plan calls for a rebranding effort, a diverse offering of academic programs, and the formation of a multiracial advisory panel to ease the transition — all methods this Court finds reasonable and appropriate."

Walthall County School District in southwest Mississippi, a district similar to Cleveland, was ordered in 2010 to comply with a 1970 desegregation order. The school district didn't oppose the order. At the time, the  district's roughly 2,500 students had a racial makeup of 64 percent African-American and 35 percent white. Today, the district has roughly 1,979 students with 63 percent black and 33 percent white.

Mississippi College School of Law Dean Wendy Scott, an expert in school desegregation cases, says the issue of white flight is a challenging question.

"I think white flight already took place back in the '70s," Scott said. "It will be interesting to see if these (current enrollment figures) hold steady. ... I think you will see less white flight than in the 1970s."

Benefits outweigh concerns

KC Heart, a native of Turkey and businessman who has lived in Cleveland 16 years, said he supports consolidation of the high schools because he personally believes one high school would allow more resources for the district. He said he doesn’t have children in the school system, so he is looking at it objectively.

“If they do have one bigger school in this town, it would ensure more resources to the teachers and quality education to all demographics in the city of Cleveland,” Heart said. “It wouldn’t be a burden. Plus, I just feel it is the right thing to do.”

“I don’t think the people at East Side have the science and extra curriculum at Cleveland High,” Heart said.

But actually, the predominantly black East Side High out performs Cleveland High, based on the Mississippi Department of Education testing model. The school district said East Side High scored a “B” while Cleveland High scored a “C.” East Side also has received national recognition for its student performance. The district also spends a substantial amount of more dollars per pupil at East Side High and D.M. Smith Middle School than it does at Cleveland High and Margaret Green Junior High.

“I work with a lot of underprivileged children," Heart said. "I know first-hand from what they tell me … If they consolidate the schools, it will give students an opportunity to see the world, not just black and white, but a diverse society.”

The school district, through its attorney Jamie Jacks, said Cleveland School District is integrated and offers some of the most diverse educational experiences in the state based upon the district's students racial makeup.  Further, Jacks said every student in grades 6-12 has the choice of which school to attend. All schools in the district are now majority — or near majority — African-American, she said. The school district provides transportation.

Jacks said Boston University Professor Christine Rossell — an expert in school integration — found the Cleveland School District is also one of just a few districts in the country with increasing interracial exposure among its students. In other words, while many of the country’s schools are re-segregating, the Cleveland School District has seen increasing numbers of students of different races learning side by side every year.

Sitting in his soul food restaurant in Cleveland, The Senator’s Place, state Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, said while there is a lot of emotion and probably fear of the unknown about the court order, the school district and the community should pause and ask the question: What is best for the students?

With customers of different races in the quaint restaurant, including some sitting together, enjoying a buffet lunch of yams, turnip greens, beans, pulled pork, barbecue chicken, fried chicken and other traditional Southern fare, Simmons gave his take on the school plan

Simmons said questions that should be asked:

  • Does the current system adequately prepare students for the future?
  • Do we need our current facilities based on the declining population we have experienced during the last three decades?
  • Can we afford to manage our system as it is currently structured effectively and efficiently?
  • Is our system producing the outcomes we want?

“When I moved to Cleveland in 1971, there were five hospitals compared to one today,” Simmons said. “There were many health clinics throughout the county compared to two today. The county had six school districts and today we have three. The Head Start program operated 19 centers and today it operates six. Our population has declined tremendously. We had 49,000 citizens in 1971, and today we have slightly over 34,000. Likewise, Cleveland’s population has declined since 1990 from over 15,000 down to slightly over 12,000 today.”

Simmons said it should be noted Cleveland and Bolivar County residents haven’t made any changes to the education system. He said the state Legislature consolidated the six school districts in Bolivar County down to three.

“And today, the federal court has ordered us to make another major change,” Simmons said. “It is time to take charge of our own educational system by being proactive and not reactive.

“We should take this opportunity to move forward with an educational system that will be second to none” he said. “In this situation, I challenge us to replace ‘race’ with a commitment to ‘race our students to the top.’ We must keep the students in mind in all we do and remove our emotions from the table, think forward and not backwards. We must work diligently to provide our students the best facilities, equipment, technology, etc. to ensure that they are educated to meet the challenges of an ever changing world.”

The ability to achieve Simmons' vision may be a factor that has nothing to do with race: the far less complex but very basic issue of dollars and cents.

Both Cleveland High and East Side main campus buildings are more than 50 years old. Thigpen said the city doesn't have money to build two new schools and may not have the money to build even one, depending on the cost.estimates In court records. The district’s general obligation debt limit is estimated at $27.9 million. The district currently has the capacity to issue limited-tax notes in the approximate amount of $3.1 million to $3.4 million.

District officials estimate a state-of-the arts high school will cost up to $36 million.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.

HISTORY OF LAWSUIT

The original federal lawsuit was filed July 24, 1965, by 131 minor children, acting through their parents or guardians, against the Bolivar County Board of Education and numerous of its members, alleging that the defendants “have pursued and are presently pursuing a policy, custom, practice and usage of operating the public schools of Bolivar County, Mississippi, on a racially segregated basis.” 

The original complaint said Bolivar County District No. 4 maintains six white schools: Cleveland High School, Margaret Green Junior High School, Pearman Elementary School, W.J. Parks Elementary School, Boyle Elementary School  and Merigold Elementary School with the schools limited to whites and staffed by white teachers, white principals, and other white professional personnel. The district also maintained four black schools: East Side High School, Nailor Elementary School, B.L. Bell Elementary School and Hayes Cooper Elementary School.

ENROLLMENT BREAKDOWN

East Side High School:  364 students — 363 black and one Hispanic 

Cleveland High School: 608 students — 292 white, 272 black, 31 Hispanic,12 Asian and one Native American

D.M. Smith Middle School: 268 students — 266 black, one white and one Hispanic.

Margaret Green Junior High: 452 students — 244 black, 184 white, 21 Hispanic and three Asian.

Source: End of year figures

TIMELINE

July 22, 1969: Chief Judge William C. Keady of the Northern District of Mississippi issues an order directing that “School District Number Four of Bolivar County is permanently enjoined from discriminating on the basis of race or color.

Jan. 23, 1985: Following the district’s submission of over 15 years of annual and quarterly status reports, the United States files a motion to intervene as a plaintiff. The court grants the request.

Nov. 8, 1985: Keady transfers the case to U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson.

Sept. 2, 1986: Davidson enters an order transferring and reassigning the case to U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter.

September 1986 until September 1989: The parties engage in a protracted period of discovery while the school district continues to submit status reports to the court.

Sept. 21, 1989: Senter enters a consent order imposing additional requirements for faculty/professional desegregation, institutes a “majority-to-minority transfer policy; directed the district to offer a minimum of two exclusive college preparatory classes at each high school and to provide transportation to students taking such courses.

Nov. 13, 1992: Senter enters a second consent order, in which he grants the school district permission to develop and implement a magnet school program at the junior high level in the Cleveland School District.

Feb. 6, 1995: Senter enters a third consent order granting the district “permission to develop and implement a magnet school program at the high school level in the Cleveland School District."

May 2, 2011: United States files a motion asking the court to find the defendants in violation of federal laws and the orders of the court.

May 15, 2012: The school district submits a “Proposed Plan … to improve integration at East Side High School and D.M. Smith Middle School."

Aug. 30, 2012: The United States filed an objection to the district’s proposed plan, arguing the plan relies on magnet programs and exclusive course offerings, two mechanisms that have failed in the past.

Dec. 11, 2012: Davidson holds a hearing on the district’s proposed plan and the United States’ objection. At the hearing, the United States argues for consolidating the district’s middle schools and high schools into a single-grade structure for grades 6 through 12.

Jan. 24, 2013: Davidson issues an order rejecting the district’s proposed plan.

Feb. 1, 2013: The United States files a motion to alter Davidson’s order. In its motion, the United States argues the freedom-of-choice plan endorsed by the court was unconstitutional and had been previously rejected by Keady when, during a 1969 hearing, he observed that “no longer may the effectiveness of any plan depend upon the wishes or choices of students or their parents." The United States again advances a consolidation plan.

April 1, 2014: The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issues an opinion finding the District Court did not make clear its conclusion that the problem of the continuing racial isolation and racial identifiability of D.M. Smith Middle School and East Side High School would be resolved by the implementation of a freedom-of-choice plan. The 5th Circuit reverses and remands “for a more explicit explanation of the reasons for adopting the freedom-of-choice plan, and/or for consideration of the alternative desegregation plans proposed by the parties.

June 18, 2014: On a joint motion of the parties, Davidson issues a scheduling order setting litigation deadlines, including a deadline for submitting proposed desegregation plans, in the wake of the 5th Circuit’s remand.

July 21, 2014: Davidson issues an order recusing himself from this action and assigning the case to U.S. District Judge Debra Brown.

Jan. 23, 2015: The United States and the district file competing proposed plans to achieve desegregation.

Feb. 13, 2015: The district files objections to the United States’ plan, and the United States files objections to the district’s two plans.

May 18-22, 2015: Evidentiary hearing is held on the competing desegregation plans.

June 5, 2015: Brown tours and inspects all schools operated by the district with counsel for the parties.

July 27, 2015: The parties submit proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law briefs to the court.

Oct. 16, 2015: The court directs the parties to “file … a single affidavit … prepared by a person with competent knowledge setting forth a revised or updated estimate for the implementation of that party’s respective plan, assuming the court’s adoption of such plan as of the date of order."

Oct. 30, 2015: Both parties submit the requested affidavits.

May 13, 2016: Brown issues order to consolidate middle schools and high schools in Cleveland to achieve desegregation.

June 3, 2016: Cleveland School District proposes merging the two high schools and two middle schools by fall 2017 but reserves the right to appeal the order.