A Multi-Generational Fight for Desegregated Schools in Los Angeles

For eight-year-old A.M., who lives in South Los Angeles, Point Fermin Marine Science Magnet School is more than a place to learn. It’s a safe, nurturing environment where they can explore their passion for sea animals and grow among diverse students from across Los Angeles. Point Fermin offers these resources as one of the hundreds of Los Angeles magnet schools that provide priority admissions points to students who reside in one of the district’s Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, or Other non-Anglo (PHBAO) designated school attendance areas. That program is designed to ensure that students from across the city have a fair opportunity to participate in specialized programs like those offered at the Marine Science Magnet School.

Now, the opportunity that students like A.M. have is under attack through a lawsuit challenging these policies that came out of a decades-long fight for desegregation. A.M. is referred to by their initials, because they are a minor.

The 1776 Project Foundation and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are suing the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in an attempt to terminate the PHBAO program, arguing that the role of race in the program makes it discriminatory. What they miss, however, is that this program is a court-ordered remedy to address racial discrimination. The ACLU, representing Black and eventually also Latino students, filed a lawsuit in 1963 to challenge severe segregation in LAUSD. After years of litigation, this resulted in a seminal 1981 order in Crawford v. Board of Education, which found that LAUSD schools were segregated and required the school district to implement a plan and develop resources addressing that civil rights violation.

For more than 40 years, this plan has ensured schools and students most affected by that history of segregation obtain certain baseline levels of support, and has endeavored to ensure that access to magnet school programs is available to all students on a fair basis. The ACLU and the ACLU of Southern California have a direct connection to the history of this case and have moved to intervene to help ensure that the students and families most affected are represented in these proceedings.

In 1963, Black and Hispanic students and families filed Crawford v. Board of Education, a class action lawsuit challenging segregation in LAUSD schools. After years of litigation, courts found that LAUSD’s schools were “substantially segregated” and that the school district had a constitutional obligation to take steps to address that harm.

At the time, segregation in Los Angeles schools was widespread. Many Black students attended schools that were overwhelmingly Black, despite Black students representing a much smaller percentage of the district’s overall enrollment. A 1971 federal survey of public school enrollment found that LAUSD was among the most segregated in the entire country. For example, in 1968, 80 elementary schools had Black student enrollments that exceeded 50 percent (and almost all exceeded 90%), even though Black students comprised only 22 percent of LAUSD’s total student population. Schools serving students of color were often overcrowded and had fewer resources, poorer facilities, and fewer educational opportunities.

In 1981, the Los Angeles Superior Court approved a desegregation plan for LAUSD schools that provided a range of remedies, including magnet programs, voluntary transportation options, and additional support for communities most affected by segregation.

For more than four decades, these court-ordered programs have helped alleviate the harms of unlawful, racial isolation. Now, they are being challenged in federal court.

The ACLU is moving to intervene to ensure that students and families affected by this case have a voice in court — and to preserve the obligation of LAUSD to provide equal access to a fair and equal education, free from segregation. This case is part of a broader effort to eliminate the ability to respond to racial and other forms of societal inequality, and to erase history rather than learn from it.