It's not policy anymore, but 1 in 7 South Carolina schools remain segregated

This is part of a series on the people who made history and the progress of public education 50 years after the desegregation of Greenville County's schools.

More than 50 years ago, Glenda Morrison-Fair was a student in segregated, all-black schools in Greenville. Today, she's a school board member in the district, the largest in a state where about one in seven schools remain dominated by minority or white student populations.

“Schools are segregated now,” Morrison-Fair said. "And it's not just in Greenville."

Across South Carolina, 171 schools, more than 14% in the state, are attended by student populations at least 90% minority or 90% white, review by The Greenville News has found. That's actually a rate that's lower than across the nation, where more than 18% of public schools enrolled 90% or more minority students in 2016, according to a report from researchers at UCLA.

That segregation has increased, at least for largely minority schools. Fewer than 6% of schools in the nation enrolled 90% or more minority students in 1988. Meanwhile, over the same period when 90% minority schools tripled, 90% white public schools dropped from nearly 39% of schools across the nation to 16%.

While such racial segregation is no longer policy, as it was before the era of civil rights, experts say it is a problem, and they say it requires local and regional collaboration to address. Redrawing school boundaries, increasing funding, spreading affordable housing options and addressing transportation problems could help.

Greenville County was one of the last districts in the nation to desegregate its schools on Feb. 17, 1970 — 50 years ago. It was one of many in the South that fought against the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision that ruled segregation unconstitutional.

When a federal court order signed by U.S. Circuit Judge Clement F. Haynsworth Jr. forced the district to desegregate in the middle of the 1969-70 school year, about 12,000 students were transferred to various schools to reflect the approximately 80% white and 20% black population of the county at the time.

Diversity is good for students of all races, research shows

Today, nearly half of Greenville's 87 traditional schools are made up of more than 50% minority students — demographics that are consistently reflected across South Carolina. In a state with about 64% white residents, 27% black residents and 6% Hispanic/Latino residents, only half of the students attending public schools are white.

Four elementary schools in Greenville County are significantly segregated: Alexander Elementary, with a student population 91% minority; Cherrydale Elementary, 90% minority; Thomas E. Kerns Elementary, 91% minority; and Tigerville Elementary, 93% white.

In Charleston County, meanwhile, nearly one-third of 80 schools are segregated with at least 90% white or minority populations. In Richland County School District 1, more than half of 47 schools are significantly segregated.

In Greenville and elsewhere, specific demographics shift slightly every day. On some days, Southside High, Tanglewood Middle and Hollis Academy eclipse 90%, too. Those schools enroll 89% minority students, and more than 70% of the students in each of the schools live in poverty, which is measured by factors including students who receive government assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Segregation by socioeconomic status is often reflected in schools' student populations, research shows.

And the socioeconomic status of students is often reflected in measures of school performance, experts say.

That trend is apparent in Greenville County Schools, where more than half of the 77,000 students in the district live in poverty.

At Tigerville Elementary in northern Greenville County, where only 5% of students are black or Hispanic, 48% of students live in poverty, and the school’s 2019 report card showed more than 84% of students met or exceeded expectations on the SC Ready English language arts test. At Thomas E. Kerns Elementary on the south side of Greenville, where only 9% of students are white, 91% of students live in poverty, and the 2019 report card showed only 32% passed the ELA test.

That makes concentrations of poverty in schools an additional problem for students to overcome, according to Roslyn Mickelson, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

"Racially segregated minority schools, more often than not, are also high-poverty schools," Mickelson said. "Racially segregated white schools tend to be higher income schools."

About 15% of South Carolina residents live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 American Community Survey, which estimated the median household income in the state at $51,015. In 2020, a family of four in South Carolina would need to earn $26,200 or less to be considered 100% within the poverty guideline, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

About 15% of South Carolina residents live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 American Community Survey, which estimated the median household income in the state at $51,015. In 2020, a family of four in South Carolina would need to earn $26,200 or less to be considered 100% within the poverty guideline, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Diversity both in racial demographics and socioeconomic status is good for students of all races and status, Mickelson said.

The UCLA report cited studies that found students who attended more integrated schools had "higher achievement, college success at more selective colleges, higher income, better jobs, less incarceration, and better long-term health."

Segregated schools can be Hispanic

Segregation is not defined the same way it was when Morrison-Fair was in school in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, it was the result of explicit policies creating separate schools for black students. Now, schools experience "de facto" segregation that results from various factors such as neighborhood segregation and "white flight" of white students from public schools to private schools.

Segregated schools also include growing Hispanic populations.

In the 1960s, the Greenville County school district tracked only student race as white or black. Today, the district tracks a range of demographics to mirror the changing population.

At Berea High School, nearly half of the student population is Hispanic, and more than three-quarters is minority and lives in poverty.

The report published in May by researchers with UCLA, the Civil Rights Project and the Center for Education and Civil Rights found that New York had the highest number of segregated schools for black students and California had the most segregation for Hispanic students.

That report showed that across the country, black students, who account for about 15% of public school students, primarily attend schools that average 47% black students. Hispanic students, who account for about 26% of students nationwide, attend schools with an average population of 55% Hispanic students.

"Researchers in several disciplines, including massive analysis by economists, are showing us the cost of double segregation by race and poverty, which is now the typical experience of African American and Latino students," the report said.

Analyzing enrollment data from 1968 to 2017, the report found that schools primarily started resegregating by race and class in the 1990s, after the U.S. Supreme Court ended many civil rights-era desegregation orders that had forced schools to reflect the population.

Students grouped in poverty create greater challenges for schools

Jalen Elrod has experienced both worlds. When he attended Berea Elementary in Greenville as a child, he didn't think much about the school's large number of Hispanic and minority students. But when he graduated from Wren High School in 2010 in Anderson, he was keenly aware that he was one of just a few black students.

"I think we had 300 kids in my graduating class, and less than 20 were black," Elrod said.

Today, 85% of Wren High's students are white. The school has 37% of students in poverty.

At Berea Elementary, 21% of students are white and 84% live in poverty.

"I think it's really detrimental — that lack of diversity at your predominantly white schools and your majority black schools that are under-resourced, under-invested in," Elrod said.

Though federal programs like Title I provide additional funding for schools with large numbers of students in poverty, Mickelson said those resources go only so far in addressing the challenges that come with teaching impoverished students.

Because higher concentrations of students in poverty means more challenges to address, it often means higher teacher turnover, Mickelson said.

Jordan Holcombe has noticed it at her school. She's a senior at Carolina High School, where 83% of students are minority and 84% live in poverty.

"We get a lot of first-year teachers because they need work experience, and they leave," Holcombe said. "Most of them leave after the first year because they just couldn't handle it."

At Carolina High, about 76% of teachers stayed at the school from 2018 to 2019. At Eastside High School, where 35% of students are in poverty, 95% of teachers returned.

"Poor children tend to be in crisis," said Mickelson, professor of sociology at the UNC-Charlotte. "They are more likely to be hungry. They are more likely to come from families that have few resources."

Those situations affect a child's ability to learn, Mickelson said, and lessening the concentration of students in poverty benefits all students.

"The most disadvantaged benefit the most, but it is not the case that only poor and minority kids benefit from integration," Mickelson said. "Actually, middle class and wealthy kids and white kids benefit from integration too, and the evidence is clear and consistent."

But re-segregation is multifaceted and without simple solutions. School demographics and poverty rates are intertwined with systemic, societal problems, Mickelson said. Where students live is directly connected to household income, affordable housing and access to transportation, which all ultimately determine where children go to school.

School districts 'will not be the single entity that can fix these issues'

Segregation and poverty are problems schools alone cannot fix, said Lindsey Jacobs, policy and advocacy director for Public Education Partners, an Upstate nonprofit organization focused on education issues in South Carolina.

"How do you [desegregate schools] without taking into account housing policy or the lack of or availability of public transportation to get to and from places, or wages?" Jacobs said. "If a family can't make enough to have a stable roof over their head or enough to put food on the table, that certainly is going to impact a child's ability to learn when they show up in the classroom."

In a 2016 affordable housing report commissioned by the city of Greenville, urban planning firm czb LLC said that without an intentional effort to create diverse and affordable communities by officials, "neighborhoods become and remain segregated by income, by race, or both."

Jason McCreary, director of accountability and quality assurance with Greenville County Schools, said the Greenville district does not consider race when drawing school attendance lines, but it does try to lessen concentrations of students in poverty and students with low test scores.

Even with those efforts, the poorest schools in the Greenville district are mostly minority, and the schools with the least amount of students in poverty are mostly white.

McCreary said it's a problem that won't be completely fixed until neighborhood segregation is addressed.

"Education will never work in a vacuum," McCreary said. "We will not be the single entity that can fix these issues."

Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who studies education law and civil rights, said while the issue does include problems outside of a school district's control, schools also have the ability to draw attendance lines in a way that lessens the effects of segregation.

In Columbia, C.A. Johnson High School sits about three miles from Dreher High School, but the two schools have stark contrasts. At C.A. Johnson, 97% of students live in poverty, only four of the school's 368 students are white, and the graduation rate is below 63%. Dreher's population is more diverse with 38% of white students and a poverty rate of 53%, and the school's graduation rate is about 87%.

"Our ability to decide where the line is between who goes to Johnson and who goes to Dreher, that's a decision with enormous consequences," Black said.

Desegregation in Greenville: 50 years later

► When integration finally arrived in Greenville, SC, it brought progress at a cost. Read the full story here

► The academic achievement gap is slowly closing, but inequities persist. Here's why. Read the full story here

► Black teacher recalls trials, triumphs at mostly white school during integration. Read the full story here

► 1963 lawsuit set stage for school integration in Greenville, SC. Read the full story here

► On the night Sterling High School burned to the ground, not everything was destroyed. Read the full story here

► Greenville 'not a town in black and white' after price was paid, civil rights leader says. Read the full story here

► It's not policy anymore, but schools in South Carolina and elsewhere remain segregated. Read the full story here

Ariel Gilreath is a watchdog reporter focusing on education and family issues with The Greenville News and Independent Mail. Contact her at agilreath@gannett.com or on Twitter @ArielGilreath.