Prepared by Martin Schiesl, Professor Emeritus of History
Library, 3rd floor bridge
January – March 2012
Los Angeles had the second largest and most segregated school district in the nation. Nearly 90 percent of black students attended predominantly black schools and two-thirds of Latino students attended mostly Latino schools. In 1963, a group of minority students represented by the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union sought an injunction in state court to desegregate two high schools. Realizing the limited effect of the lawsuit, the plaintiffs in 1966 amended their complaint to require that the school board integrate all district schools. This exhibit illustrates this story by providing a narrative history of desegregation in Los Angeles schools from 1963 to 1981.
