Home / Full timeline / In Alexander v. Holmes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that school districts must end racial segregation immediately and “operate now and hereafter only unitary schools.”
In Alexander v. Holmes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that school districts must end racial segregation immediately and “operate now and hereafter only unitary schools.”
1969 (Oct 29)
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that school districts must end racial segregation immediately and "operate now and hereafter only unitary schools." The Court rejected the Nixon administration's appeal for a delay in desegregating thirty Mississippi school districts. The new ruling indicated that the Court had abandoned its fourteen-year-old standard of allowing desegregation to proceed "with all deliberate speed." In the current decision, the high Court declared that "continued operations of segregated schools under a standard of all deliberate speed for desegregation is no longer constitutionally permissible." The case, known as Alexander v. Holmes, was the first major decision delivered by the Supreme Court under President Richard Nixon's appointee, Chief Justice Warren Burger.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.