B. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
Explanation:
After the decision of the Supreme Court in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education, little progress had been made in separating public schools. One example was the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, system in which approximately 14,000 black students attended schools that were totally black or more than 99 percent black. The lower courts had experimented with several possible solutions when the case reached the Supreme Court.
In a unanimous decision, the Court held that once violations of previous mandates to segregate schools occurred, the scope of the equitable powers of district courts to remedy past mistakes was broad and flexible. The Court ruled that 1) repair plans should be judged for their effectiveness, and the use of mathematical reasons or quotas were legitimate "starting points" for solutions; 2) predominantly or exclusively black schools require close scrutiny by the courts; 3) the non-contiguous assistance zones, as provisional corrective measures, were within the corrective powers of the courts; and 4) it was not possible to establish rigid guidelines regarding the transportation of students to private schools.
