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Carlin Integration Case Records
MS-0029
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & University Archives
Title: Carlin Integration Case Records
Creator:
Kari Carlin et al v. Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0029
Physical Description:
60.70 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1950-1997
Date (bulk): 1964-1997
Language of Material:
English
.
The
Carlin Integration Case Records include nearly three decades of court proceedings and research for
Kari Carlin et al v. Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District. The records include court transcripts, briefs and court orders, correspondence, maps and charts of ethnic imbalance, various
committee reports, court exhibits and depositions, declarations, interrogatories, enrollment statistics, student testing result
studies, trial notes, news clippings, and information concerning similar court cases. The collection is divided into two series:
Research Files and
Court Records.
The
Research Files, dating from 1950 to 1997, include all the research materials necessary for conducting the trial. This series is divided
into five sub series:
General Files,
Similar Cases,
Data/Reports,
Reference Books, and
Maps. The
General Files (1965-1997) are organized alphabetically and contain correspondence, news clippings, court case volunteer information, "white
flight" research, and statements to the Board of Education by various organizations. The
Similar Cases files (1954-1997) are arranged chronologically by case. These files detail information about related integration cases in both
California and other states, such as
Crawford v. LA and
Brown v. Board of Education. The
Data/Reports sub series (1965-1996) is likewise organized chronologically, and contains extensive documentation of enrollment statistics,
various committee reports, district wide testing results, and VEEP and magnet program progress reports. The
Reference Materials files (1962-1979) include alphabetical reference publications regarding previous integration cases, law terminology, and legal
code. Lastly, the
Maps sub series (1950-1982), organized alphabetically, contains maps of district boundaries, census tracts, ethnic composition
of schools, VEEP schools, and ethnically balanced and imbalanced high schools, junior highs, and elementary schools. Most
of these maps are from the late 1960's and 1970's.
The
Court Records, dating from 1962-1997, include the official court papers created by the Carlin case, and documents court proceedings, actions
taken by the plaintiffs and defendants, arguments, exhibits, and the general legal process. This series is divided into five
sub series:
General Files,
Interrogatories,
Exhibits and Depositions,
Briefs and Court Orders, and
Transcripts. The
General Files (1967-1985) are organized alphabetically and include the chronological indexes to the major legal documents from the case,
along with the documents themselves, subpoenas, declarations, and travel documents. The
Interrogatories (1966-1970) are arranged by question order. These files document the pre-trial questions, answers, and attachments to potential
witnesses, experts, defendants and plaintiffs. The
Exhibits and Depositions files (1962-1983) include the various exhibits and depositions used during the official court hearings, such as declarations, statistics,
reports, and letters to and from school board personnel. These files are in chronological order according to court hearing
dates and by the order in which they were shown to the court. Several exhibits, however, are missing. The
Briefs and Court Orders sub series (1967-1997) document official court papers, such as petitions, temporary restraining orders, declarations, court
memorandums and requests, briefs, and judgments. This sub series is arranged chronologically. Finally, the
Transcripts sub series (1975-1992) include both the clerk's and reporter's transcripts of the hearings. These files are divided into
clerk's transcripts and reporter's transcripts, and are organized chronologically.
I. Research Files, 1950-1997
1. General Files, 1965-1997
2. Similar Cases, 1954-1997
3. Data and Reports, 1965-1996
4. Reference Materials, 1962-1979
5. Maps, 1950-1982
II. Court Records, 1962-1997
1. General Files, 1967-1985
2. Interrogatories, 1966-1970
3. Exhibits and Depositions, 1962-1983
A) Hearing, November, 1976, 1962-1977
i. Plaintiff's Exhibits, 1962-1977
ii. Defendant's Exhibits, 1965-1977
B) Hearing, May 7, 1979, 1977-1979
C) Hearing, June 25, 1979, 1974-1980
i. Plaintiff's Exhibits, 1974-1980
ii. Defendant's Exhibits, 1978-1979
iii. Court's Exhibits
D) Hearing, May 20, 1980
E) Hearing, July 15, 1981, 1981
F) Hearing, May 25, 1982, 1981-1982
G) Hearing, October 7, 1983, 1979-1983
H) Depositions, 1969-1983
I) Index of Exhibits, 1979
4. Briefs and Court Orders, 1967-1997
5. Transcripts, 1975-1992
A) Court Clerk, 1976-1980
B) Court Reporter, 1975-1992
This collection is open for research.
The copyright interests in some of these materials have been transferred to or belong to San Diego State University. The nature
of historical archival and manuscript collections means that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine.
Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. Requests for permission to publish
must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted,
permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are
made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the
materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
William Gavin
1985-001. Addition from Charles Shuford Swift on February 18, 1997
Citizens United for Racial Equality Records
Reverend George Walker Smith Papers
School Integration Task Force
Harold K. Brown Papers, 1956-2000
Journals
California Law Review 60, no.2 (March 1972).
Federal Supplement 269, no.4 (September 4, 1967).
Harvard Law Review 78, no.3 (January 1965).
Hastings Law Journal 24, no.4 (March 1973).
Journal of Negro Education 63, no.2 (Spring 1974).
Journal for the Promotion of Research, Service, and Leadership in Education 67, no.2 (October 1965).
Books
Bloom, Benjamin S., Allison Davis, and Robert Hess. Compensatory Education for Cultural Deprivation. New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, Inc., 1965.
Caughey, John. To Kill a Child's Spirit: The Tragedy of School Segregation in Los Angeles. Illinois: F.E. Peacock Publishers,
Inc., 1973.
Caughey, John and Laree Caughey. School Segregation on Our Doorstep: The Los Angeles Story. Los Angeles: Quail Books, 1966.
Grodzins, Morton. Metropolitan Area as a Racial Problem. Chicago: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958.
Passow, A. Harry, ed. Education in Depressed Areas. (New York: Teachers College Columbia University, 1963).
Trubowitz, Sidney. A Handbook for Teaching in the Ghetto School. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1968.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Racial Isolation in the Public Schools. Vol.1. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1967.
U.S. Riot Commission Report. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Books, 1968.
Identification of item, folder title, box number, Carlin Integration Case Records, Special Collections and University Archives,
San Diego State University Library.
This collection was processed as part of the San Diego African American Archives Project, made possible by a grant from the
President's Leadership Fund.
The San Diego City Schools originally followed a neighborhood school policy, under which students attended the school nearest
their homes. Therefore, the schools reflected neighborhood segregation. While wealthier whites could afford to move to newer,
more expensive neighborhoods with better schools, lower income minority populations remained in the older neighborhoods with
older schools.
The San Diego Unified School District had received many complaints concerning the obvious segregation of city schools. In
1963, the NAACP presented recommendations designed to reduce school segregation in the San Diego Unified School District.
Then, in 1965, the San Diego School Board adopted a resolution calling for the elimination of segregation in San Diego schools.
In 1966, the Citizens Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity confirmed that a racial imbalance existed. The school district,
however, failed to implement any of the Citizens Committee's 39 recommendations. About forty groups, unhappy with the district's
non-response, established the Interorganizational Committee (IOC) to make further recommendations. Larry Carlin, a teacher
and former secretary for the Citizens Committee, headed the IOC. In 1967, Carlin and several other parents active in the IOC
filed a class action lawsuit against the San Diego Unified School District for alleged inequalities of educational opportunities
for students of all ethnic backgrounds, formally titled Kari Carlin et al v. Board of Education, San Diego Unified School
District. The plaintiffs filed the suit in the name of ten children who represented four ethnic groups (white, Black, Chicano,
and Asian-American).
A conflict between state and federal law prevented the case from moving forward. San Diego city school segregation was not
deliberate, it was the result of housing patterns. Federal law stipulated that segregation was illegal, but California law
maintained that as long as segregation was not intentional and facilities were equal, de facto segregation was not unlawful.
The decision to continue the Carlin case rested on the outcome of Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education. In 1976, the
California Supreme Court ruled that segregation, "regardless of its cause," must be rectified, thus making San Diego's segregation
illegal.
In 1975, Carlin was reactivated. Two years later Judge Welsh found that twenty-three San Diego schools were segregated, and
the Court ordered the San Diego Unified School District to develop a detailed voluntary plan to alleviate racial segregation
in these schools. The plaintiffs had hoped for a mandatory plan. In 1978, Judge Welsh created the Integration Task Force to
assess and monitor the school district's progress. Annual hearings to evaluate the new plan were implemented, and additional
hearings were also set up to deal with any unforeseen issues that arose during the integration process.
In response to Judge Welsh's order, the Board of Education began improving existing school integration programs, and implementing
new ones. In 1966, the Board had created the Voluntary Ethnic Transfer Program (later called the Voluntary Ethnic Enrollment
Program, or VEEP), to improve the ethnic balance at predominately white schools. In 1974, the school board began promoting
VEEP through feeder patterns. A magnet program, set up in 1973, was meant to attract white students to inner-city schools.
Finally, the Race/Human Relations program, begun in 1972, designed and promoted multicultural awareness through workshops
and field trips for staff and students.
In 1985, the court decided that progress toward an acceptable ethnic and racial balance had been reached, and it issued a
final order, which terminated the Integration Task Force, and ended the annual progress hearings. An annual written report
was to be submitted to review the district's progress. Although the Board's plan changed the ethnic composition of city schools,
very little social integration occurred, and an achievement gap still existed between the white majority students and minority
students.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
De facto school segregation
School integration
School integration--California--San Diego
Magnet schools
Organizational Records
San Diego (Calif.). Board of Education--Trials, litigation, etc.--Sources
San Diego (Calif.)--Race relations--Sources
Carlin, Kari