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32 Ala. L. Rev. 281 (1980-1981)
The Dialectics of School Desegregation

handle is hein.journals/bamalr32 and id is 289 raw text is: THE DIALECTICS OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION Derrick Bell* I. INTRODUCTION If truth i the first casualty of any war, then flexibility in ap- proach, reasonableness in dealing with others, even the common- sense ability to recognize where self-interests lie, all must be the earliest victims of a crusade. Certainly this has been the case with school desegregation, perhaps the major social reform crusade of our time. From the Supreme Court's language in the Brown opin- ion1 to the current congressional efforts to bar courts and federal agencies from ordering mandatory busing remedies,2 the issues have been cast in stark and dramatic terms. No middle ground exists though courts over the years have often struggled to find a basis for compromise or consensus. These efforts have simply heightened the sense of paranoia on all sides. How, comes the call from the dug-in trenches, can there be ei- ther compromise or consensus with a moral issue? And so it goes. White parents, if they possibly can, remove their children from the public schools either on the admission of * Dean, University of Oregon Law Schdol. This Article is based on the Hugo Black Lecture delivered by Dean Bell at The University of Alabama School of Law on November 25, 1980. I wish to thank Dean Thomas W. Christopher and The University of Alabama School of Law for the funding and support that enabled Mr. Sylvester Jones to conduct a survey of school desegregation opinions from parents, teachers, and school officials in several Alabama school districts. Mr. Jones, with the assistance of Mr. Ray Martin and Assistant Dean Ken Goodwin, interviewed approximately 150 persons during the summer and fall of 1980. The transcripts of the interviews cited in this Article are on file in the library at The University of Alabama School of Law. 1. Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954). 2. During its lameduck session following the Presidential election in November 1980, the 96th Congress made efforts to prevent the Justice Department and other federal agen- cies from seeking racial balance orders by riders attached to appropriation bills. President Carter vetoed the applicable bills. See N.Y. Times, Dec. 14, 1980, § 4, at 4, col. 1; id., Dec. 11, 1980, § 1, at 1, col 1. 281

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