PREVIEW OF SPECIAL SECTION

In addition to the articles in response to the controversy, this issue has a special section on Washington State politics and a resulting U. S. Supreme Court decision that directly relates to this issue.  The section is broken down into several different themes.

As part of the community response theme, readers will also find six position papers developed by the Washington State Multiethnic Think Tank, a grassroots set of reports addressed to the State Legislature and the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.  The demise of the group would require a separate issue of the journal for its analysis.

Readers will also find video interviews of two of the authors in this section on our "Authors Talk" link.  See interviews with David Engle and Thelma Jackson.

SPECIAL SECTION ON WASHINGTON STATE POLITICS AND THE U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION

In the prologue to this issue of the journal, Jonathan Kozol tells the reader that the U.S. Supreme Court decision this term in PICS v Seattle School District may decide with finality the prospects for integrated education in this nation. This special section on Washington State Politics will provide the reader with a context for understanding the issues that the court is weighing in the Seattle case against a background of Washington state history and politics.

Douglas Judge first gives us an understanding of Seattle's past struggle for desegregation within the history of segregated housing patterns and restricted covenants along with a timeline of events. An understanding of that struggle gives the reader an historical context for examining today’s opposing legal arguments before the court that are supplied by authors representing the Pacific Legal Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. The PLF article questions the use of social science research in arguing constitutional issues while the ACLU article questions the use of  race-neutral remedies as an effective means in achieving racial desegregation as a goal in public education. Two school administrators also provide the reader with a personal look from the inside of the schools that are at the heart of the decision. And finally, the journal provides unique perspectives from the views of various community groups in Washington state whose children are at the center of the controversy and whose lives will be impacted by the Court’s decision.