Nearly 50 years after Cleveland’s controversial desegregation plan started, people still debate its effects on generations of city school children.
Court-ordered busing ended close to three decades ago. Yet today, few know that the desegregation plan was a response to a school district strategy designed to keep students racially segregated. It was known as the “relay” policy. The plan that was in effect in the 1950s and 1960s has had damaging and long-lasting consequences, says Leah D. Hudnall, a nonprofit consultant and former vice chair of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District board.
At the time, schools in many Black neighborhoods were severely overcrowded. In many of the white neighborhoods, there were vacant classrooms. Instead of sending Black students to fill classrooms in the white neighborhoods, the district decided that Black students in jam-packed schools would attend school only for a half day. The plan addressed overcrowding, but it put these students at a disadvantage because they did not get a full day of instruction like their white peers…