Segregation, Not a Thing of the Past

June 17, 2001 -- Decades after civil rights battles and triumphs and tragedies classrooms across the country are integrated in principle but still segregated in practice.

Arlington, Virginia Public Schools recently produced a documentary chronicling the city's struggle to desegregate its school. For many, the film demonstrates amazing progress. But for others, it shows how the issues may have changed but the struggle for equal education remains.

"The black community felt they wanted the same thing as the white community did," said former school counselor Joseph Masekura. "This meant changing everything.

'Achievement Gap' Spreads Across the Country

In 1959, five years after the Supreme Court struck down state laws allowing segregation in public schools, Arlington schools were still racially separate and unequal.

"See, a lot of people think it was just a matter of blending races," said Welbe Deskins, an Arlington parent. "But that's not what it was about. It was about getting the best teaching, the best grades, the best schooling for your children.

Forty two years later, despite the best intentions, that dream has not been fulfilled. When tested, black students here score 15 to 40 percent lower than white students.

"Across the country, we have an achievement gap," said Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Robert Smith. "And in Arlington that's an achievement gap between white students and African American students.

Increasingly, some parents and educators blame segregation.

Arlington's schools are, by law, integrated. But in reality they remain mostly segregated following local housing patterns. In northern Arlington, elementary and middle schools are nearly all white. In south Arlington, they are mostly black and Hispanic.

Some parents say the predominantly white schools do a better job of teaching.

"These schools are delivering different quality of education — a higher level of education," said Linda Stalls, an Arlington parent.

Fred Millar transferred his daughter to a mostly white school in North Arlington.

"In the north Arlington school, the students felt entitled to learn and the teachers felt entitled to teach," Millar said. "In the South Arlington school, it was like a penal colony."

The problem of segregation persists through high school. Although more integrated, students here seem to be receiving a separate education even within the same school.

"One of my concerns continues to be that there are not enough minority youngsters identified as gifted and talented," said school board member Frank Wilson. "And we know that they are."

Major Cities Resegregated

Some educators say minority schools need more resources, more funding and more "commited" teachers.

According to a recent study, the resegregation of schools has become a trend in major cities across the Midwest and Northeast — especially in Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, and in New York.

"Where we have segregation then we have to continue to make sure that we have equal resources," said Theodore Shaw, of the NAACP. "And where we have a concentration of poverty, equal resources are not going to do the job. We have to put even more into those schools.

Not everyone believes integration alone is the answer.

"Merely putting people together doesn't necessarily cause them to have the same educational treatments, it doesn't cause them to come together either," said Superintendent Smith.

That may be one of the most important lessons learned since desegregation — that getting rid of a "separate" educational experience does not guarantee it will be an "equal" one.

— ABCNEWS' Michelle Major contributed to this report.