School Board

1970s

The struggle for an end to racial discrimination continued through the 1970s. Nationally, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina were ordered to desegregate under a court ordered mandatory busing plan. Locally, Seattle became the largest city to voluntarily enter into a mandatory busing program. The Seattle School District continued mandatory busing until 1996.

The 1970s also saw white students claiming discrimination based upon affirmative action programs designed to improve racial diversity in higher education. In 1978, in Regents of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court considered whether such programs violated the Equal Protection Clause. Without a clear majority, the Court held that it was permissible to use race as a factor in school admissions, but that the rigid racial quotas used by the University did violate the 14th Amendment.

• Washington et al v. Seattle School District

• Documentary of an African-American Man

• California v. Bakke

• Defunis v. Odegaard

• Keyes v. School District No. 1

• Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement