Green v. New Kent and the Green Factors

Essential questions

1. What is desegregation?

2. How would you know if a school or community organization is integrated?

3. How do leaders decide when or how to act? 

Outcomes and objectives

After the lesson students will…

1. Describe a nuanced view of integration in schools/public institutions.

2. Apply the Green Factors to assess desegregation needs/efforts in a school.

3. Explain varied perspectives of social movement leaders and political leaders on the legal history and court decisions around desegregation of schools in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Preparing to teach

Review the materials included and brush up on the historical context. The Green case and the Green Factors are far less well known than what students typically learn. Check on access to links to make sure they work and are not blocked. Make copies of worksheets and texts to be used with activities.

Scaffolds and accommodations to support learners

• For the discussion of perspectives from the oral history article, provide access to the entire article so students can investigate the source and author.
• Offer sentence starters or frames for students to respond to the questions. For example:

1. 1. The prompt is: How would you describe the perspective in your own words?
   2. The sentence frame could be: The perspective of the [name the person] quote is [here describe what that person is talking about in your own words; are they arguing for or against something?], because the phrase/sentence says [here include a short phrase or sentence that is evidence of the perspective you described].

Adjusting for middle school grades

Note: You know your students best, and we encourage you to use these activities and resources in ways that support rigorous and challenging learning. Below are some ideas for adapting these activities to middle grades:

• Adjust pacing. Some activities could be made longer, and the lesson could span two class sessions.
• Eliminate or revise activities and learning objectives to align better with your grade level goals and standards.
• Extra reading supports:
  • Read with a purpose: Set a clear and explicit goal for what students should learn from reading.
  • Read with a partner: Take turns reading aloud, or read quietly with timed breaks to explain what they read to each other.
  • Offer an everyday language version of the reading materials: Provide the original as well, but excerpts in typical everyday language can be a helpful scaffold or resource for students.

Instructional activities sequence

• First: Review Brown v. Board of Education 1954 (set historical context–see short summary in materials section) – 10 minutes

  • This could be read or distributed to students or be the foundation for a short lecture. You might consider asking students what they already know (KWL Chart).
  • The LDF “Winding Road to Brown and Beyond” pamphlet offers a comprehensive overview of events leading up to the Brown decision and what followed (see materials at the end of this lesson).
  • An enrichment activity that would require more time could be to have students read the Supreme Court opinion from Brown v. Board of Education, attached to the end of the materials section. This would provide a more robust understanding of the arguments and perspectives but also some additional scaffolding contextualizing language use and understanding the text. A highlighting strategy following some context-setting would be valuable to supporting readers. Also, you should review the materials yourself prior to teaching and tamper with the document to make it appropriate for your students.
• Second: Summary/Review of Green case, including the Green Factors and the importance of the case. Brown required schools to desegregate, but did not define desegregation (see short summary in materials section). – 25 minutes.
  • This could be read or distributed to students or be the foundation for a short lecture. You might consider asking students what they already know (KWL Chart).
  • Excerpts from the court case syllabus are in the materials section. Divide students into groups and respond to the questions:

    1. What is a “free choice plan” in this case?

    2. What did the Court see “wrong” with free choice plans? (multiple answers in the text)

    3. What was an important outcome of the case?

• The Green Factors are used to assess whether a school district has done everything they can to desegregate. School districts under federal desegregation orders are required under law to eliminate even the vestiges of de jure segregation.

• 1. When we examine to see if racial disparities still exist in the Green Factors, we examine at the district level, school level, grade band level, grade level, and classroom level because of a mandate from the Supreme Court to eliminate de jure vestiges of racism “at root and branch.”

  2. These factors can all overlap: Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg emphasized that student assignment and facilities go hand in hand.

  3. Formal discovery is a request for information to collect this data and includes site visits (going to school, taking pics, and speaking to admin), hosting community meetings, and speaking with the plaintiff class.

• The Green Factors and application notes to be shared with students are in the materials list at the end of this lesson.

Green Factors:

• • Student Assignment
  • Faculty Assignment
  • Staff Assignment
  • Transportation
  • Extracurricular Activities
  • Facilities
• Third: Read demographic data of a school (their school?) and community to consider which Green Factors are not as integrated as they could be and make suggestions for desegregation needs. – 30 minutes

  • Urban Institute (for student race and ethnicity demography from the 1980s to present): https://www.urban.org/data-tools/explore-your-schools-changing-demographics 

  • Most school districts have a state report card or open data set that would allow you to explore more in-depth data about the schools’ racial and ethnic integration: For example, Tennessee DOE, John Trotwood Middle School https://tdepublicschools.ondemand.sas.com/school/001900490

  • A third option could be to help students engage in a survey or gather their own data about the racial and ethnic demography of students, teachers, staff, participation in extracurricular groups, and assessment of transportation and facility use and resource allocation.

• Fourth: Read and discuss varied perspectives from the oral history article and respond to questions: – 20 minutes (see perspectives resource in materials list at the end of the lesson)

  • Where are the quotes from?

  • Who was the author?

  • Who published it?

  • When was it published?

  • What type of text is it?

  • Whose perspective is represented in the quote?

  • How would you describe the perspective in your own words?

Teaching Tip: The Library of Congress has guidance for analyzing primary sources that might be helpful.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/documents/Analyzing_Primary_Sources.pdf 

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/documents/Primary_Source_Analysis_Tool_LOC.pdf 

• Five: Debrief the oral history article and varied perspectives on desegregation cases from the 1950s around the question of: When/how do political leaders decide to take action? (5 min.)

• Six: Larger Scale Assessment Ideas: Make an oral history or do a podcast interview to share about experience in schools (classmates or self) related to student, teacher, staff, transportation, facilities, and extracurricular activities.

  • Alternative Assessment or Enrichment: Interview an older family member about their interactions in school related to the Green Factors. Use the interview to make a slideshow or movie trailer about their experience.

Assessment

1. Adequate application of the Green Factors to a demographic report of schools or community organizations.

2. Discussion in class of the Green Factors and case contexts, including varied perspectives.

3. Sorting/graphic organizer for the varied perspectives from the oral history article.

Materials needed and additional resources for enrichment

1. Short Summary of Brown v. Board of Education 1954 (for more detail, see the Supreme Court opinion attached at the end of the materials section)

2. Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case in the United States that challenged the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools. The case originated in Topeka, Kansas, where Black children were required to attend separate schools for Black students, which were often inferior in quality to those attended by white students. The plaintiffs argued that this segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal rights to all citizens.

3. The case reached the Supreme Court in 1954, and in a unanimous decision, the Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and white students were inherently unequal and unconstitutional. This decision overturned the precedent set by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson, which had upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine.

4. The Brown v. Board of Education decision marked a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, as it laid the groundwork for desegregation efforts across the country and challenged the legal basis of segregation in other public facilities. It played a crucial role in the ongoing struggle for racial equality in the United States.

5. Short Summary of Green v. New Kent County School Board
   

   Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968) was a significant United States Supreme Court case that dealt with the issue of school desegregation. The case involved the New Kent County School Board in Virginia, which had implemented a “freedom-of-choice” plan to supposedly comply with the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

   In Brown, the Court had ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, and it required school boards to take affirmative steps to eliminate segregation “root and branch.” However, the New Kent County School Board’s “freedom-of-choice” plan, which allowed students to choose between an all-white school and an all-Black school, was deemed insufficient by the Court.

   In the Green case, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, held that the “freedom-of-choice” plan did not constitute adequate desegregation. The Court emphasized that the school board had the affirmative duty to dismantle dual school systems based on race and ensure that the new system was genuinely integrated.

   The decision in Green established the principle that school boards had to take proactive measures to eliminate segregation, rather than relying on superficial or token efforts. It contributed to the ongoing legal and social efforts to enforce desegregation in public schools and was part of the broader legal landscape that sought to address the racial inequalities stemming from the era of segregation in the United States.
   
   Please click here or click the download PDF button for the remaining part of the materials needed.