Charlotte’s Integration Era: The Life and Death of Court-Mandated Busing, 1971-1999
Abstract
In 1971, Charlotte, North Carolina confronted the problem of desegregating its education
system, becoming a pioneer among the de-facto segregated Southern cities of that time.
It did so
through the creation of a groundbreaking busing program, per the order of Swann v.
Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Board of Education. However, economic growth shortly followed and with
this
growth came demographic change that profoundly entrenched the residential segregation
of
Charlotte. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a movement grew in the newly developed
uppermiddle
class communities of South Charlotte; a movement that advocated for a shift back to
neighborhood schools. This grassroots effort was the driving force behind a lawsuit
known as
Capacchione v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, filed in 1997, which challenged
the
Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board on its practice of using race in pupil assignment
for its new
magnet school program. This thesis will investigate all aspects of this case, exploring
the ways in
which the jurisprudence of its verdict played a fundamental role in the resegregation
of
Charlotte’s public school system. To do so, it proceeds by detailing the business
history of
Charlotte from 1971 onward as it relates to Charlotte’s demographics. It then analyzes
the
actions of both the School Board and the neighborhood schools movement as they became
opposing forces in the 1990s. Finally, it interprets the proceedings of the U.S District
Court and
Fourth Circuit U.S Appellate Court in hearing the case.
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
HistorySubject
CharlottePublic Education
Resegregation
Institutional Discrimination
Busing
Capacchione v. CMBE
Swann v. CMBE
Belk v. CMBE
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16671Citation
Pierpoint, James (2018). Charlotte’s Integration Era: The Life and Death of Court-Mandated Busing, 1971-1999.
Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16671.Collections
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