Home / Full timeline / School officials and civil rights leaders in Jackson, Mississippi, agree on a plan for desegregating the city’s elementary schools through busing and educational parks.
School officials and civil rights leaders in Jackson, Mississippi, agree on a plan for desegregating the city’s elementary schools through busing and educational parks.
1971 (Jun 23)
School officials and civil rights leaders in Jackson, Mississippi, the largest school district in the state, agreed on a plan for desegregating the city's elementary schools through busing and educational parks. Both parties, in the first such compromise they had ever reached, agreed that the plan would remain in effect for three years without a court challenge. Dr. Harry S. Kirshman, acting Superintendent of Schools, announced that the agreement would affect about 18,000 to 19,000 elementary school children, with approximately 8,000 to 9,000 being bused to classes. The educational park concept is built on clusters of modules around a common center. Each module is to accommodate the equivalent of four traditional classrooms with 30-1 pupil-teacher ratios. Black enrollments in the schools would range from 41 to 70 percent.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.