Trump Admin Ends Louisiana Desegregation Consent Decree

Louisiana Senate Candidate Julia Letlow Holds Primary Night Event In Baton Rouge — Source: Kathleen Flynn / Getty

Boy, Louisiana is really trying its hardest to take the crown for the most racist state. After 61 years, a Louisiana school board and the Trump administration have ended an oversight agreement intended to curb segregation.

According to AP, the consent decree ordering desegregation at Bossier Parish Schools was originally issued in 1964. Bossier Parish Schools argued that the consent decree was a relic of a time when Black students were forbidden from attending schools.

“Dismissal of the case allows us the freedom to make our own decisions that are in the best interest of all students, staff and our community, while keeping in mind the history of the past 61 years,” Bossier Schools Superintendent Jason Rowland said in a statement.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill celebrated the move in a social media post. “It’s long past time for these old consent decrees to come to an end. These decades-old cases are expensive, ineffective, and they take power away from local communities,” Murrill said on social media.

They took away the power from local communities to do what, Liz? Please, explain it to me like I’m 12. If I’ve learned anything about Louisiana politics, it’s that if Liz Murrill is behind something, there’s a strong chance it’s bad for Black people.

Murrill was instrumental in Louisiana v. Callais, the case that ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act. That decision led to Tennessee eliminating its only majority-Black district, Louisiana eliminating one of its two majority-Black districts, and several southern states with a history of anti-Black legislation pursuing redistricting efforts with similar goals.

Murrill also doesn’t believe in the concept of wrongful conviction. She regularly attacked Calvin Duncan during his campaign to become the Orleans Parish clerk of court. Duncan spent two decades in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Despite Duncan being formally exonerated, she continued to argue that he was guilty of his crime. This is a pattern for her too, as she has denied all but one compensation package for people who were found to be wrongfully convicted.

So yeah, she’s kind of the worst and clearly isn’t too fond of Black people. Which, sadly, has proved to be beneficial for her as the Trump administration has continually worked to make life harder for Black people. While the Justice Department has historically worked to maintain these desegregation mandates, under President Donald Trump they’ve been framed as federal overreach into local school boards.

So the federal government telling schools not to be racist is too far, but asking hospitals and states to send sensitive, private information about U.S. citizens is perfectly fine. Got it.

Louisiana already doesn’t rank high when it comes to education, but this move definitely puts the academic prospects for Black students at risk. What’s to stop the school board from rezoning districts in a way that places Black students in underfunded, underperforming schools? It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that Murrill also worked to end a desegregation mandate for the Concordia Parish School Board along the Mississippi River.

We’ve seen how deregulating food screenings has led to outbreaks of cyclospora, New World Screwworm, and salmonella all in the last year. As soon as corporations didn’t have to take food safety seriously, they didn’t. So I’m doubtful that a state that has shown such contempt for Black people is going to make a good-faith effort to ensure Black students receive the same educational prospects as white students when they’re no longer legally obligated to.

This is one of the few instances where I’d love to be proven wrong, though.