## Facts

- Black Boston public school students and their parents sued Boston school officials and related governmental entities, challenging racially segregated public schools.
- In an earlier phase, the court found that segregation across the Boston public school system was intentionally created and maintained through official actions, including attendance-zone manipulation, school siting, and student assignment policies.
- After that liability finding was affirmed on appeal, the court conducted remedial proceedings to design and implement a systemwide desegregation plan.
- Proposed remedies included restructuring the system into community districts and a citywide district, revising assignment and transfer rules, closing or reconfiguring certain schools, creating magnet programs, and using transportation for students assigned beyond walking distance.
- Opponents urged the court to limit reassignment and busing based on predictions of community resistance and “white flight,” arguing the remedy would otherwise be ineffective or destabilizing.

## Issues

1. What remedial measures were necessary and appropriate to dismantle systemwide, intentionally maintained segregation in Boston’s public schools.
2. Whether anticipated white flight or community opposition could justify narrowing or weakening the desegregation remedy.
3. How to structure assignment rules, district lines, specialized programs (including magnet and exam schools), school utilization decisions, and transportation to achieve actual desegregation.

## Decision

- The court adopted and ordered implementation of a comprehensive, systemwide student desegregation plan with specific operational requirements and timelines.
- The plan included reorganization into community school districts and a citywide district, extensive student reassignment (including transportation), magnet and specialized programs, and school closings or reconfigurations tied to desegregation objectives.
- The court declined to modify or dilute the remedy based on predictions of white flight or resistance, holding that such reactions could not lawfully limit enforcement of constitutional requirements.
- The court required monitoring, reporting, and structures for community participation to support compliance and ongoing oversight.

## Legal Principles

- Federal courts possess broad equitable authority to craft remedies that eliminate the effects of intentional school segregation; the remedy must be commensurate with the scope of the constitutional violation.
- When intentional segregation is systemwide, a systemwide remedy is permissible and may be required; partial measures that leave racially identifiable schools may be inadequate.
- Student transportation may be ordered as a remedial tool when necessary to disestablish a dual school system and to prevent neighborhood-based assignments from perpetuating unlawful segregation.
- Predicted opposition, including anticipated white flight, is not a valid basis to narrow a constitutionally required desegregation remedy.
- Remedial orders may include detailed implementation mechanisms—assignment rules, program design, facility decisions, and compliance monitoring—to ensure desegregation is achieved in practice.

## Conclusion

The court ordered a detailed, systemwide desegregation plan for Boston public schools and held that the remedy could not be weakened to accommodate predicted white flight or resistance, emphasizing broad equitable power to dismantle intentional segregation through structural changes, reassignment, and transportation with ongoing oversight.


Morgan v. Kerrigan, 401 F. Supp. 216 (D. Mass. 1975)