| This dissertation examines attempts to integrate the schools within the Kansas City, Missouri, School District from 1954 to 1998. In the aftermath of the Brown decision, local school officials decided to desegregate all local schools. However, since there was no federal mandate for integration, local officials refused to implement any programs to ensure that black and white children would actually attend classes together. This local indifference along with external factors such as residential segregation and white flight guaranteed that local schools would continue to experience defacto segregation.; During the 1960s, the federal government called on local school districts to promote integration, but the leaders of the Kansas City School District refused to budge from their conservative policies. Local civil rights leaders began to demand increased integration efforts, but the board believed that any integration program would exacerbate white flight and lead to further defacto segregation. Numerous opportunities to promote racial integration in the Kansas City School District passed by during the 1960s, and by 1970, the district had changed from majority white to majority black.; The federal government first intervened in the Kansas City School District during the 1970s. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare attempted to use its power over federal education funding to force policy changes in the Kansas City School District. The district implemented minor integration program, but it never fully cooperated with HEW. Executive integration efforts ended by 1980, and HEW programs had little impact on the racial balance within local schools.; In 1977, the integration battle shifted to the federal courts. After a protracted legal battle, a federal judge ordered the implementation of a massive integration program. The magnet school program was designed to draw white students back into the district and improve the academic performance of black students, but neither goal was achieved. Judicial integration programs rapidly evolved in incredibly expensive failure, and the local program was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court.; Overall, integration proved an impossible dream in the Kansas City School District. No governmental authority was able to overcome local resistance to school integration, and the history of school integration in the Kansas City School District graphically illustrates the limited ability of government bodies to effect social change. |
