Prometheus 6

Desegregation Order Lifted From a School in Brooklyn
By JENNIFER MEDINA

A federal judge on Friday lifted a 1974 desegregation order for a Brooklyn middle school, effectively eliminating racial quotas that had been in place at Mark Twain Intermediate School for more than three decades.

The order was imposed when the district, No. 21, was largely white and the Federal District Court in Brooklyn ruled that it was steering white, middle-class students away from the school, deliberately segregating it.

The order stated that the school had to reflect the basic makeup of the district. At the time, about 30 percent of the students were from minority groups and 70 percent were white.

After the court order, Mark Twain was converted to a selective school for gifted students, and it is now highly respected. The neighborhood has also changed, with the proportion of white students in the area steadily decreasing. The result has been that because of the court order and the demographic changes, minority students are now being turned away from the school in favor of whites.

Referring to the demographic shift and the increasing popularity of the school, Judge Jack B. Weinstein wrote in his ruling: “The defendants have complied with the 1974 remedial order. Mark Twain has been desegregated. The court has no further jurisdiction in this case.”