Forced Busing Loses Public Support
The national trend of desegregation gradually drifted away from forced busing. Mostly, districts guarantee that schools have equal facilities and offer students some choice through transfers and magnet programs. Yet, there remains some busing and zoning for desegregation purposes.
On June 20, 1988, Judge Scott consolidated the schools of Bordelonville, Mansura, Moreauville, Plaucheville, and Simmesport in Avoyelles Parish to strengthen racial balance.
Scott's order closed Forest Hill Elementary School closed, but parents tried to defy the order. They symbolically raising the U.S. flag daily to show that school was in session. It was converted into a private school. One of the Forest Hill parents, Clyde C. Holloway, ran for the U.S. Congress in 1980 as a protest to Scott's order. In 1985, Holloway ran for Congress in a special election in which one of Judge Scott's sons, State Representative John W. "Jock" Scott, was an opponent. In 1986, Holloway was elected to Congress for the first of three consecutive terms.
The federal court ruled that Rapides Parish had achieved racial equality in transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities but not in student assignments and faculty racial ratios. Rapides Parish has altered school zones since Scott's ruling, but the school district was still impacted by Scott's orders in its zoning and hiring decisions.
On September 28, 2006, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria finally ended its supervision of the Rapides Parish public schools. Judge Dee D. Drell, an appointee of President George W. Bush, held that the district is fully desegregated, free of racial discrimination, and no longer requires federal supervision.
Read more about this topic: Nauman Scott
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