TexasTribune.org

A federal court has released Longview ISD from decades-long supervision of its policies for educating students of color. It has made progress to topple the barriers still holding black and Hispanic students back from the same academic success as white students. But whether it continues a commitment to student equity now depends solely on the collective will of a school board that could change with a single election cycle. The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision declared school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, but Longview ISD — along with hundreds of Texas school districts — resisted until federal judges intervened and imposed detailed desegregation plans across large swaths of the state. In 1970, an East Texas-based federal court mandated Longview ISD tackle a long list of tasks designed to make sure its black students were learning and playing in the same classrooms and playgrounds as their white peers. Forty-seven years later, Longview was one of only three Texas districts that remained under a federal court order.