A federal appeals court on Tuesday ended more than 60 years of federal oversight of a Louisiana school system that had been ordered to eradicate segregation. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a decades-old desegregation mandate for the Concordia Parish School Board, marking a significant victory for President Donald Trump’s administration, which has made ending these court-ordered desegregation plans a priority.
The school system has been a focal point in the administration’s broader effort to conclude legal cases dating to the Civil Rights era. The Trump administration represents a dramatic reversal in federal policy. For decades, the U.S. Justice Department fought vigorously to enforce desegregation orders across the country. Officials in Trump’s administration have reframed these remaining segregation orders as federal overreach and intrusion into local school systems.
Louisiana state officials have aligned with this perspective, arguing that the desegregation orders are no longer necessary and represent remnants of a darker chapter of American history. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stated, “The good people of Concordia Parish elected their school board to govern their schools—not unelected federal judges.” She added, “Today’s decision puts that authority back where it belongs.”
The origins of the Concordia Parish case trace back to 1965, when the area was segregated and home to a violent offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. Black families in Ferriday, a town on the central-eastern border of Louisiana, sued for access to all-white schools, prompting federal government intervention to enforce integration. As the district pursued school integration, many white families fled Ferriday, causing the district’s schools to increasingly reflect the demographics of their surrounding areas.
Today, Ferriday remains mostly Black and low-income, while its neighboring city of Vidalia, which is mostly white, benefits from substantial tax revenue generated by a hydroelectric plant located there. This geographic and economic divide has created the conditions that originally prompted the desegregation order more than half a century ago.
The desegregation mandate was used in recent years to enforce integration requirements. Most notably, when a mostly white charter school opened in Concordia Parish in 2013, the federal order compelled it to prioritize Black students in admissions and work to create a more integrated student body.
Some parents and civil rights groups have pushed back against the court’s decision, arguing that desegregation orders remain critical tools for addressing persistent vestiges of segregation. They point to documented racial disparities in student discipline, access to advanced academic programs, and teacher hiring as evidence that segregation’s effects continue to shape educational outcomes. These advocates contend that without federal oversight, schools may revert to practices that disadvantage students of color.
The Concordia Parish case represents just one example of desegregation orders originating from the Civil Rights era that the Trump administration has targeted for termination. The Justice Department’s reversal of its historical role as a champion of desegregation demonstrates a fundamental shift in how the federal government views its responsibility to enforce integration in American schools.
Members of the Concordia Parish School Board did not immediately respond to requests for comment following the court’s decision. The original families who brought the 1965 lawsuit are no longer actively involved in the ongoing litigation.