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.