11 states tied up in Ayers-like lawsuits (school desegregation)

[Ahriman]

Mississippi's Ayers case is among decades-old desegregation lawsuits in 11 states, primarily in the South, that are winding down, with historically black universities receiving money for construction, scholarships and academic programs.

The U.S. Supreme Court ended Mississippi's 30-year-old case last week when it refused to hear an additional appeal. Louisiana's case could wrap up next year, while there's talk of a settlement in Alabama by August 2005, education leaders say. Tennessee's case, the first to be filed in the nation, could wind up in 2006.

Nineteen states originally were accused in lawsuits of operating racially segregated systems of higher education decades ago. Today, the list of 11 states remaining under federal scrutiny — with the courts or the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights — also includes Kentucky, Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida.

While a federal judge continues to monitor the Alabama case that resulted in more than $100 million going to Alabama A&M and Alabama State universities, officials "are working hard to bring fruition to the case,'' said Michael Malone, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.


http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041025/NEWS01/410250347/1002