Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

The Court approved busing and racial ratios as remedial tools to dismantle school segregation.

Overview

A North Carolina district covering city and county was ordered to desegregate after years of resistance. Chief Justice Burger wrote for a unanimous Court approving race-conscious remedies, including pairing schools, transporting students, and faculty desegregation, where segregation had been imposed by law. The Court cautioned that judicial power ends when the constitutional violation is remedied, but within that scope federal courts possessed broad equitable authority. Busing orders transformed Southern schools, which became among the most integrated in the nation, while Northern cities faced white flight and suburban district boundaries limited remedies.