Absent federal enforcement, school segregation in the Northeast worsened between 1968 and 1980

Evidence

The first table shows similar patterns of southern progress when comparing the amount of blacks in schools that are more than half minority. The southern states surpassed the mean segregation reduction of the United States by 10.1 percentage points as their number of black students decreased by 23.8 percent. Once again, because of lack of federal regulated implementation of desegregation programs, the Northeast regressed and the number of black students in 50 percent minority schools increased by 13.1 percent. In both tables the Northeast is the only region in the United States that showed this regression back to segregation. — Marcy Crouch, Magnet Schools and Other Means of…, 14

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The Northeast regression as the lone exception across every measure implies that enforcement capacity, not regional culture, drives desegregation outcomes — a claim with wide implications.