More than sixty-two years after the United States Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the nation is still wrestling with how to integrate our schools. Indeed, recent evidence indicates the problem has been worsening.

School districts in some southern states that had made impressive progress under federal court oversight have seen their schools re-segregate as the courts have pulled back and even called into question the legality of voluntary desegregation plans. School districts in northern and western states never were substantially affected by Brown’s desegregation mandate because of the Supreme Court’s unwillingness to make Brown a truly national requirement. In fact, schools in northern and midwestern states such as New York, Illinois, Michigan, and New Jersey have consistently been the most severely segregated