Justice
Buffalo Was Once a Model for Integration. Now the Vast Majority of its Public Schools Are Segregated
How one of the city's biggest success stories went wrong.
In 1972, a group of parents in Buffalo, New York, filed a federal lawsuit to desegregate the city's public schools. A judge ruled in their favor; the city went on to become a national model for school integration.
But four decades later, that progress have been erased. According to the Buffalo News, 70 percent of public schools in the city are segregated (defined as 80 percent or higher minority or white enrollment), the same level as when the 1972 lawsuit was filed. Today, just 47 percent of public school students graduate.