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BACKGROUND
Nearly ten years after Brown v. Board of Education, Milwaukee experienced its first demonstrations advocating desegregation. Following the protests, in 1965 the NAACP joined Lloyd Barbee, a Milwaukee attorney, in challenging segregation in Amos v. Milwaukee Board of Education. After a decade of arguing the suit, in 1976 Federal Judge John Reynolds held that Milwaukee was unlawfully segregating schools. In an effort to desegregate the schools, Wisconsin’s legislature created the Chapter 220 Voluntary Integration Program. This program permitted minority students in Milwaukee to attend predominately white school in the suburbs and allowed white students in the suburbs to attend predominately minority Milwaukee schools. Twenty years later, the Open Enrollment program allowed students to transfer from their school district to any district within the state. This propelled the migration of white students from schools in Milwaukee to schools in the suburbs and increased segregation once again. In July 2015, the Chapter 220 Voluntary Integration Program was eliminated, which ended the one program in Wisconsin dedicated to promoting integration.
MEDIA
- Milwaukee, WI – Problems Persist In Milwaukee Public Schools 40 Years After Desegregation (August 2016)
- Milwaukee, WI – 40 years After Desegregation Ruling, Core Problems Remain (July 2016)
- Brown Deer, WI – Will They Stay or Will They Go? (June 2016)
- Wisconsin – Critics Say Wisconsin Going Backward on Achievement Gap (December 2015)
- Wisconsin – Gov. Scott Walker Savages Wisconsin Public Education in New Budget (July 2015)
- Milwaukee, WI – Don’t Kill Chapter 220 Program (April 2015)
- Milwaukee, WI – 60 Years After Brown v. Board of Education, Intense Segregation Returns (May 2014)
- Milwaukee, WI – Author Finds “Stain of Segregation” in Milwaukee’s Schools Both Past and Present (March 2013)
OTHER RESOURCES
- A New Wave of School Integration (The Century Foundation, 2016)
- Segregation Levels in Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Voucher Program (School Choice Issues in the State, 2006)
- Relationships Between School Desegregation and Government Housing Programs: A Milwaukee Case Study (National Institute of Education, 1980)
- Turning Points in Wisconsin History: Desegregation and Civil Rights (Wisconsin History)
- Open Enrollment Data and Reports (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction)
RESEARCH ADVISORY PANEL MEMBERS
- John Diamond, University of Wisconsin – Madison
- Douglas Harris, University of Wisconsin-Madison