Twenty years after the litigation started, the Law Center intervened in 1991 on behalf of ASPIRA and other community groups. Philadelphia’s demographics had changed drastically, and the focus of the case changed from equalizing school demographics to ensuring educational opportunity for all by closing the educational achievement gap between minority and white students.
Desegregating Philadelphia Schools
In the early 1970s, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) brought a series of lawsuits against the School District of Philadelphia in Commonwealth Court seeking to desegregate the District. The litigation stretched on for years, as various plans – busing, redistricting, magnets, etc. – were considered then rejected as ineffective or impractical.
