Education segregation in Indiana facts for kids

Indiana has some of the most segregated schools in the United States. This means that students are often separated into different schools based on their race. Even though laws have called for school integration since 1949, a study in 2017 found that Indiana still has a lot of segregation. This study was done by the UCLA Civil Rights Project and Indiana University.

On average, a Black student in Indiana goes to a school where about 68% of the students are not white. In contrast, the average white student attends a school where about 81% of the students are white.

History of School Segregation

Indiana became a state in 1816. In 1843, the state government decided that public schools were only for white children. Because of this, groups like the Quakers and free Black communities started their own schools for Black students, such as Union Literary Institute.

Separate Schools Allowed

In 1869, the state allowed "separate but equal" public schools for Black children. This meant schools could be separate for different races, but they were supposed to be equal in quality. In 1877, the law changed to let Black students attend a white school if there wasn't a Black school nearby. However, local towns could decide how to apply this rule, so it wasn't always the same everywhere.

The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 made "separate but equal" a legal policy across the country.

Influence of the Ku Klux Klan

During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) became very strong in Indiana. The KKK was a group that supported white supremacy and segregation. Their strong presence in local and state government, along with more Black residents moving to Indiana after World War I, led to public support for segregation in housing and schools.

Some examples of segregated high schools in Indiana during this time were Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis (opened 1927) and Theodore Roosevelt High School in Gary (accredited 1930).

Steps Towards Integration

In 1946, the Gary School Board created a policy against discrimination. But because neighborhoods were still separated by race, schools remained segregated in practice. In 1949, Indiana officially adopted laws that clearly supported integration. It was the last northern state to do so.

After the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled that separate schools were unequal, Indiana still needed more legal action. Several court cases followed, like Bell v. School City of Gary (1963) and Banks v. Muncie Community Schools (1970). National policy became clearer with Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), which used the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Busing and Modern Segregation

In the 1970s, the federal government used court-ordered busing to help integrate schools. In Indianapolis, busing started in 1981. However, the busing rules in Indiana were uneven. They often required Black children to be bused to white schools, but not white children to Black schools. This meant Black children and their families faced most of the challenges of the busing program. Busing in Indianapolis ended in 2016.

A 2017 study by Indiana University and the UCLA Civil Rights Project showed that Indiana schools are still very segregated. This is often because school district boundaries are set based on income and race. For example, schools where more than half of the students receive free meals (a sign of lower income) are more likely to have mostly non-white students.

Indiana's Population

In 2010, about 84.4% of Indiana residents were white. This is higher than the national average of 73.8%.

Early History and Migration

Indiana's first constitution in 1816 banned slavery. However, the 1851 state constitution later stated that "No Negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the State." This showed that the state was not always welcoming to Black people.

In the early 1900s, many Black people moved from the south to large cities in Indiana, like Indianapolis. This migration grew during World War II. At the same time, white families began to move out of city centers to the suburbs.

Latino Population Growth

Before 1970, Latinos were a small part of Indiana's population. By 2000, 3.5% of Indiana's population was Latino. In the next ten years, the number of Latinos in Indiana grew twice as fast as the national rate. In 2010, 6.0% of the state's population was Latino. They have settled across the state.

School Demographics Today

The makeup of schools in Indiana often matches the communities they are in. The average white student in Indiana attends a school where about 81% of the students are white. The average Black student attends a school where about 68% of the students are not white.

Studies on Segregation

Since 1996, the level of segregation in classrooms across the United States has been studied by the Civil Rights Project. This project was first at Harvard and then moved to the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. In 2017, the Project worked with Indiana University to study the situation in Indiana.

A 2012 UCLA study found that Indiana had the sixth most segregated classrooms in America.

School Vouchers

Indiana has one of the largest school voucher programs in the United States. School vouchers are special payments that help parents send their children to private schools instead of public schools.

Some people believe that vouchers make school segregation worse. Studies on vouchers have shown mixed results. However, both studies found that Black students who had been in mostly Black public schools often used vouchers to attend mostly Black private schools.