[TRANSCRIPT]

Kriston Pumphrey

A 50-year battle between the town of Cleveland, Mississippi, and the U.S. Department of Justice was settled on Monday when the Cleveland School District was ordered to desegregate their junior high and high schools. Currently the schools are split with either mostly white OR mostly black students.

The two high schools will be combined, and the junior high and middle school will also be merged. This action is the first time in the school district’s 100-year history that the high schools will be desegregated.

Originally, the school district proposed two substitute plans to rearrange the schools, but they were denied by the court as unconstitutional. The court stated that “the dual system the district has been running has failed to achieve the highest possible degree of desegregation required by law.”

Court opinion detailed testimony that showed that both black and white communities supported the integration of the schools, and that many believed that white students were receiving a better education.