Milliken v. Bradley

Milliken v. Bradley 418 US 717 1974 is an important U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with the busing of public school students across district lines. It concerns the plans to integrate public schools in the United States in the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 347 US 483 1954 decision. It followed another Supreme Court case concerning school busing, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education 402 US 1 1971.

The Decision

Here, the Court ruled that desegregation plans could not require students to moves across school district lines. This decision exempted suburban districts from assisting in desegregating inner-city schools, thereby reinforcing “white-flight” from cities to suburb and pitting poor white and black residents of the inner-city districts against each other.