Mississippi school district named in desegregation lawsuit is allowed to shed federal supervision

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A majority-Black Mississippi school district received a judge's approval Tuesday to shed federal supervision in a decades-old desegregation lawsuit that included a 2013 order to move away from harsh discipline that disproportionately affected Black students. U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate praised the Meridian Public School District for reducing the number of suspensions that led some students to drop out of school. The department said at the time that its investigation found Black students “frequently received harsher disciplinary consequences, including longer suspensions, than white students for comparable misbehavior, even where the students were at the same school, were of similar ages, and had similar disciplinary histories.” Attorneys for the Justice Department and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund said Tuesday that they had no objection to Wingate granting “unitary status” to the Meridian schools, a designation that shows the district has eliminated vestiges of prior segregation and no longer needs federal supervision. “During the short time that I’ve worked with the Meridian Public School District, I’ve realized that these employees show great love and respect for each other, the students, and the community,” wrote Tujuana Frost, who identified herself as Black and did not specify what kind of job she holds in the district.