School Resegregation in the Mississippi of the West: Community Counternarratives on the Return to Neighborhood Schools in Las Vegas,1968–1994

Abstract

Background

School desegregation and resegregation in the Mountain West remain understudied despite the substantial impact the region's growth and demographic change have had on racial balance and diversity in schools. Home to the largest school district in the Mountain West and fifth largest school district in the country, Las Vegas's unprecedented rise in students identified as Latino, Asian, and immigrant English-language learners living in poverty, coupled with its legacy of racial segregation, reflect trends and conditions critical to national conversations around racial diversity and school resegregation in the post-Civil Rights Era.

Purpose

This article describes the events surrounding the Kelly v. Mason (1968) case, which led to Las Vegas's mandatory school desegregation plan and the African American community's request in 1992 to abandon the mandatory busing plan for a return to neighborhood schools. Its secondary aim is to disrupt a tradition of advocacy for school integration absent the voices, experiences, and, in many cases, forewarnings of Black community stakeholders who questioned whether school desegregation via forced busing would actually result in equal education and genuine racial integration.

Research Design and Methods

The present analysis employs a qualitative research design, historical case study methods, and critical race theory's call to context and counter-narratives to tell the story of school desegregation and resegregation in Las Vegas between 1968 and 1994.

Conclusions

The article concludes with implications and future directions for school desegregation research and policy, particularly given the under-examined nature of school resegregation in the Mountain West.