More than 55 years after the federal government targeted school segregation in rural North Florida, a judge Tuesday ruled the Jackson County school district has met desegregation requirements and ended a lawsuit against the district.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued an order that said the Jackson County district had achieved what is known as “full and final unitary status” and dismissed the case.
“This is a historic day for Jackson County,” district Superintendent Hunter Nolen said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “For over 50 years, our school system has worked diligently to eliminate the longstanding desegregation case from 1970. Today’s order confirms that we have fully complied with the Constitution and have created an equitable educational environment for all students in Jackson County.”
Walker’s order came after U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno last month approved ending a Hendry County school-desegregation lawsuit that also started in 1970. Moreno’s order came after the U.S. Department of Justice and the Southwest Florida district agreed that “vestiges of the prior de jure segregation” had been eliminated.
Jackson County, which is about an hour west of Tallahassee, was one of six North Florida counties targeted in a lawsuit filed by the federal government in July 1970, according to Jackson County’s motion for unitary status. The other districts were in Gadsden, Gulf, Jefferson, Lafayette, and Wakulla counties.
The lawsuit came long after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, but as desegregation legal battles continued in the South and other parts of the country.
A footnote in Jackson County’s motion said the Gulf, Jefferson, Lafayette, and Wakulla districts have been declared unitary. But Walker also issued a ruling in 2017 that said Gadsden County had achieved the status.
Jackson County was required to show that it had shedded vestiges of segregation in a number of areas, including student assignment, treatment of staff and administrators, transportation and facilities. Court orders in 2018 and 2023 granted partial unitary status on most of the issues, but student discipline issues remained unresolved.
The district’s motion for final unitary status said it had taken a series of steps such as making sure teachers are trained on disciplinary issues.
“Not only are the new/incoming teachers provided with training prior to each school year, school administrators also participate in a ‘boot camp’ which emphasizes the core nature of their duties and includes modules on school discipline and a focus on sensitivity to possible racial disparities,” the motion said.
A document filed in May by the U.S. Department of Justice said federal officials had conferred with the Jackson County district during the past school year about discipline practices. The federal government did not oppose the motion for full unitary status.