New Jersey Hasn't Done Enough to Desegregate Schools, Suit Says

WNYC News | May 17, 2018

On the 64th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education court decision that desegregated American schools, a civil rights coalition and several students sued New Jersey failing to integrate its public schools.

The Latino Action Network, the New Jersey chapter of the NAACP and nine students ages five through seventeen are among the plaintiffs. The lawsuit, unveiled at a state Superior Court in Mercer County Thursday morning, claims New Jersey has one of "the most segregated public school systems in the country."

It also comes two weeks after a study revealed black and Latino students at some schools are even more segregated than they were five years ago, with more than half of black students attending schools where at least 80 percent of students are non-white.

Elise Boddie, professor of law at Rutgers University and one of the leaders behind the suit, spoke to WNYC's David Furst about the suit. 

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