Public Schools First NC is a parent-led organization that has consistently fought the North Carolina General Assembly, which has done everything possible to harm public schools and public school teachers since the Tea Party took control in 2010. The Republican majority introduced charters and vouchers. It has consistently underfunded public schools and ignored a court decision requiring equitable funding (the Leandro decision). Once, long ago, the public schools of North Carolina were considered the most progressive in the South. No more.
Public Schools First NC released this statement:
The United States has changed dramatically in the nearly 56 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. If he were still alive today to celebrate his 95th birthday, what would he have to say about where we are as a nation?
The answer to what MLK, Jr. would say is best left to the creative minds of MLK, Jr. historians, his friends, and family. But what we can do is document what MLK, Jr. would see if he were still alive.
He would see that although tremendous gains were made after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was signed into law and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968) that school integration plans must meaningfully reduce segregation, schools are now more segregated by race than they were in 1968.
According to a 2020 report from from the UCLA Civil Rights Project, in 1968, 77% of Black students across the nation attended majority non-white schools. That number dropped to 62% (55% in the South) by 1976 under the influence of desegregation efforts but rose again to 81% by 2018, the latest year available.
He would see that the gains in school integration were hard-fought, eventually beaten back by racism and northern Whites calling for the “freedom to choose” their schools when challenged with the reality of school desegregation.
In North Carolina, he would see how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Education (1971) motivated the district to launch an ambitious desegregation plan that made it a national leader in school integration and closing achievement gaps.
He would also see how the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 2001 to prohibit consideration of race in school assignments led to Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools steadily resegregating. A 2022 report by the NC Justice Center named Charlotte-Mecklenburg the most segregated district in the state.
He would see the growing school choice movement and the declining investment in public schooling across the United States. The irony of cutting funds to schools and then citing failing schools as a reason to pay for other options would not be lost on MLK, Jr.
In North Carolina, he would see that segregation academies could become state-funded charter schools. He would see the emergence of vouchers pulling even more dollars away from public schools despite lack of evidence of their benefit to students.
He would see the stubborn resistance to funding public schools exemplified by the Leandro case. Brought by five poor, rural school districts and parents (Cumberland, Halifax, Hoke, Robeson, and Vance) in 1994, the nearly thirty years of subsequent legislation have revealed statewide failures in education funding. Cumberland County, with a school district still fighting for adequate funding, is now distinguished by having more private school voucher recipientsthan any other county in the state.
He would see resistance so entrenched that legislative leaders refused to follow a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling to fund the schools. They appealed the ruling and now the Leandro case is back before the North Carolina Supreme Court on February 22, 2024. (Learn more here.)
Would Martin Luther King Jr. be there to hear oral arguments? Will you? How can we all honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy?
What Would Martin Luther King, Jr. Say?
The United States has changed dramatically in the nearly 56 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. If he were still alive today to celebrate his 95th birthday, what would he have to say about where we are as a nation?
The answer to what MLK, Jr. would say is best left to the creative minds of MLK, Jr. historians, his friends, and family. But what we can do is document what MLK, Jr. would see if he were still alive.
He would see that although tremendous gains were made after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was signed into law and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968) that school integration plans must meaningfully reduce segregation, schools are now more segregated by race than they were in 1968.
According to a 2020 report from from the UCLA Civil Rights Project, in 1968, 77% of Black students across the nation attended majority non-white schools. That number dropped to 62% (55% in the South) by 1976 under the influence of desegregation efforts but rose again to 81% by 2018, the latest year available.
He would see that the gains in school integration were hard-fought, eventually beaten back by racism and northern Whites calling for the “freedom to choose” their schools when challenged with the reality of school desegregation.
In North Carolina, he would see how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Education (1971) motivated the district to launch an ambitious desegregation plan that made it a national leader in school integration and closing achievement gaps.
He would also see how the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 2001 to prohibit consideration of race in school assignments led to Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools steadily resegregating. A 2022 report by the NC Justice Center named Charlotte-Mecklenburg the most segregated district in the state.
He would see the growing school choice movement and the declining investment in public schooling across the United States. The irony of cutting funds to schools and then citing failing schools as a reason to pay for other options would not be lost on MLK, Jr.
In North Carolina, he would see that segregation academies could become state-funded charter schools. He would see the emergence of vouchers pulling even more dollars away from public schools despite lack of evidence of their benefit to students.
He would see the stubborn resistance to funding public schools exemplified by the Leandro case. Brought by five poor, rural school districts and parents (Cumberland, Halifax, Hoke, Robeson, and Vance) in 1994, the nearly thirty years of subsequent legislation have revealed statewide failures in education funding. Cumberland County, with a school district still fighting for adequate funding, is now distinguished by having more private school voucher recipientsthan any other county in the state.
He would see resistance so entrenched that legislative leaders refused to follow a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling to fund the schools. They appealed the ruling and now the Leandro case is back before the North Carolina Supreme Court on February 22, 2024. (Learn more here.)
Would Martin Luther King Jr. be there to hear oral arguments? Will you? How can we all honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Public schools promote democracy. Privatization is a tool for those that promote segregation. Since so many charter and voucher schools separate students by race and class, they work to resegregate our schools. The irony is that these schemes were sold as ways to promote equity. In reality they are a way to further divide our people and undermine the common good. I believe that MLK would be defending our public schools where diverse students can work together for mutual understanding and respect. King always maintained that separate is never equal. He envisioned a society in which people would judge each other by “content of their character and not the color of their skin.” Privatization is a path to undermine MLK’s dream of a more tolerant future with equal access and opportunity for all.
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I remember how clueless I was to the “real” world as a teenager. As a child, a kid was a kid. It was only as I got older that I had a glimpse of the divisions. I imagine that is true of many minority children as well although they may be introduced to the dangers they might face earlier. It takes strong mentors to guide a child to choose to fight for more than society would willingly give them. I, myself, half believed that marriage and motherhood was my main responsibility although education was always very important in my family and was fully supported by both my parents. My mother had not finished college; she married before her senior year, but her father decided what she should major in! We tried to encourage her to go back and finish; she would have left all those twenty year olds in the dust, us included. I married after my junior year but finished college and kind of fell into teaching, but that is another story. I would not have been one of those students who fought for an education. I had no idea anybody had to! So here’s to all those people who despite the odds against them have managed to survive and thrive. Those are the people who make us great.
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Thank you for those wise words, Speduktr.
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Thank you so much for posting our piece about NC and Dr. King today. It will bring us much-needed exposure as we head into 2024 and all of the mess that the year will likely entail. We all appreciate you and your work more than we can express. All our best, Heather – PSFNC
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Thank you, Heather.
I know that PublicSchoolsFirstNC is pushing a boulder uphill. Try knocking off Tricia the Turncoat first.
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Watching the movie “Rustin” isn’t a bad way to commemorate Dr. King. It’s a look behind the scenes of what it took to organize the March on Washington of 1963. The usual problems of prejudice, politics, and division all play a role.
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If MLK were alive today, he would still be fighting school choice and the racist supremacists who support it. He would be meeting with congresspeople to end annual standardized testing. He would be anything but sotto voce in his denunciation of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Trump education agenda. A few years from now, at a hundred years old, he would still kick Bill Gates and Betsy DeVos’ butts all over the place. The man was a ministerial BAT, a Badass Teacher — of alleged grownups.
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Well said, LCT!
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