Relay Cleveland Educational Resources

Mendez v. Westminister School Dist., 64 F. Supp. 544 (S.D. Cal. 1946) 

This landmark federal court case ruled that the segregation of Mexican American children in Orange County, California schools was unconstitutional. The decision was a crucial precursor to Brown v. Board of Education, challenging the legal basis for "separate but equal" in public education.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka | 347 U.S. 483 (1954) | Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center

In this unanimous and historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-sponsored segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and set the legal stage for desegregation efforts nationwide.

Milliken v. Bradley | 418 U.S. 717 (1974) | Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center 

The Supreme Court's ruling in this case limited the scope of desegregation efforts by preventing inter-district remedies to combat segregation. The decision effectively allowed suburban school districts to remain predominantly white, even when adjacent urban districts were heavily minority, and significantly weakened the power of federal courts to enforce desegregation plans.

Reed v. Rhodes, 422 F. Supp. 708 (N.D. Ohio 1976) :: Justia 

This was the federal court case that officially found the Cleveland Public Schools to be illegally segregated. It led to a court-ordered desegregation plan that included busing and other measures, fundamentally shaping the city's educational landscape for decades.

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris | 536 U.S. 639 (2002) | Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center 

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Ohio's school voucher program, which provided tuition aid for students in Cleveland to attend private or religious schools. The ruling opened the door for states to use public funds for religious education, and critics argued it undermined public schools and desegregation efforts.

Use this resource on the Eugenics movement of the early 1900s to deepen students' understanding of the history of racism in the United States.

Learn about Francis Galton and the beginnings of eugenics, or “race science,” and consider the relationship between science and society.

Scholar David Jones describes the history of the eugenics movement in the United States.

In this classroom video, a high school history teacher facilitates a conversation with students about the legacy of the eugenics movement in the United States.

In this classroom video, a high school history teacher facilitates a conversation with students about the legacy of the eugenics movement in the United States.

• Cleveland Restoration Society: The Making of Cleveland’s Black Suburb in the City: Lee-Seville & Lee-Harvard

• Susan DuFresne:The History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools (graphic novel)

• Chris Emdin: For White Folks who Teach in the Hood . . . and the rest of y’all too. 

• Susan Kaeser: Resisting Segregation: Cleveland Heights Activists Shape Their Community, 1964-1976

• Jonathan Kozol: Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools 

• Kenneth L. Kusmer:A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870-1930

• Gloria Ladson Billings: The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children

• Bettina Love: We Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom 

• Todd M. Michney: Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900-1980

• Gholdy Muhammad:  Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historicially Responsive Literacy 

• Imani Perry: May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem

• James Robenalt: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland

• Richard Rothstein:The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

• Richard Rothstein, Leah Rothstein: Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law

• Carla Shalaby: Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School

• David and Richard Stradling: Where the River Burned: Carl Stokes and the Struggle to Save Cleveland

• Isabel Wilkerson: The Warmth of Other Suns

• Carter G. Woodson: The Mis-Education of the Negro 

• Cleveland Civil Rights Trail: Desegregation of Cleveland Public Schools

• Film: In the White Man’s Image  (A history of Native American Boarding Schools)

• Film: A Death in the City: In the Wake of Segregation 

• Library of Congress: Native American Boarding Schools 

• “The Enlightenment’s Dark Side: How the Enlightenment Created Modern Race Thinking” Jamelle Bouie, Slate 

• “The Truth About IQ” David Shenk, The Atlantic

• “Beyond a Test Score: Explaining Opportunity Gaps in Educational Practice” Richard Milner

• Why the Academic Achievement Gap is a Racist Idea 

• G: The Miseducation of Larry P RadioLab Podcast 

• Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi are Teaming Up To Help Young People Navigate Racism 

• What Institutionalized Racism Looks like inside our System of Education

• Carter G. Woodson: “Black History Month Founder Showed How Schools Should Teach about Race” 

• Nannie Helen Burroughs: “Denied a Teaching Job for Being ‘Too Black,’ She Started her own School – and a Movement” 

• Theresa Dunne: “Marching Mothers”: The Battle for Desegregation in the Cleveland Public Schools, 1957-1967

• Julian Madison: This Relay was about Race: Fighting to Segregated Schools in Cleveland, Ohio

• Leonard Nathaniel Moore: The School Desegregation Crisis of Cleveland, Ohio, 1963-1964: The Catalyst for Black Political Power in a Northern City

• Ideastream: Divided by Design

• Ideastream: From Desegregation to School Choice: How the Civil Rights Era Influenced the Cleveland Schools of Today

• Ideastream: With thousands of empty seats and budget challenges, should CMSD close schools?

• Nikole Hannah-Jones: Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City - The New York Times 

• Cleveland Historical: The Desegregation of Cleveland Public Schools 

• Signal Cleveland: Cleveland school choice through the decades (timeline)