Black, White, Brown, Green, and Fordice: The Flavor of Higher Education in Louisiana and Mississippi

Like many other states, Mississippi and Louisiana have struggled, and continue to struggle with the difficult problem of racial segregation in higher education. Through decades of litigation and negotiation, their higher education systems developed plans to equalize and unite the historically black and historically white institutions. The author\u27s examination of Mississippi and Louisiana\u27s strategies reveals that the states used several different approaches to achieve desegregation, but nevertheless their colleges and universities, like many aspects of society, remain largely racially distinct. The author concludes that many elements essential to effective desegregation were missing from the Mississippi and Louisiana plans. Hopefully, the author offers possible ways that the historically white and historically black colleges that continue to exist can become just schools

Constitutional Comparisons and Converging Histories: Historical Developments in Equal Educational Opportunity under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the New South African Constitution

The black populations in both the United States and South Africa continue to suffer under the legacy of past discrimination and unequal educational opportunity. In both countries, the constitutional revisions eliminating state-sanctioned racial discrimination failed to alleviate the disadvantages experienced by blacks in terms of socioeconomic status, educational opportunity and political power. America\u27s post-emancipation history, including the Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court jurisprudence, shows that the removal of de jure racial discrimination and constitutionally countenanced unequal treatment is not enough to repair the damage and lingering effects caused by former discrimination. Rather, more affirmative steps are necessary. South African policy makers would do well to learn from America\u27s experiences with post-emancipation inequality as they enter their own post-apartheid era and to create affirmative action policies directed at quickly creating true equality or opportunity