1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

7. Segregation North and West
At least until 1954 State and local law required separate public schools
for Negroes in the South. 1 With rare exceptions 2 such segregation as
there has been in the North and West has been a matter of practice 3
without explicit legal sanction. In some instances, nonetheless, official
action has contributed to or caused segregation. Where this is true, a
denial of equal protection may exist.
Where segregation is explicitly imposed by law, as in the South, the
State action necessary to invoke the I4th amendment is clear. The
problem there, as discussed above, 4 is simply to find the best ways to
accomplish desegregation. In the Northern and Western States the
question is whether segregation results from such State action as will
invoke the I4th amendment.
In its 1959 Report, the <strong>Commission</strong> said: 6
Concentration of colored Americans in restricted areas of most
major cities produces a high degree of school segregation even in
communities accepting the Supreme Court's decision. With the
migration of Negroes and Puerto Ricans to the North and the West,
and an influx of Mexicans into the West and Southwest, the whole
country is now sharing the problem and the responsibilities.
This migration has continued. The 1960 census lists five cities in the
North and West, each with more Negro residents than any southern city
where separate public schools for white and Negro children were required
by law in I954- 6 Indeed, only 9 of the 25 largest cities in the
United States 7 in 1960 lie in the South and 3 8 of them have completely
desegregated their school systems since 1954.
Public schools enrolling Negroes almost exclusively in some cases, and
whites almost exclusively in others, are found in many cities throughout
the North and West. Although official reports are few due to a policy
of not recording the race, religion, or national origin of pupils, the facts
are clear. Three cities, where attempts are being made to change the
existing pattern, have frankly reported their findings as to segregation.
A 1960 report of the board of education of New York City 9 reported
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