Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education described a desegregation remedy involving transporting students to different schools. This remedy is known as what?

• A. Redrawing district lines to create minority districts
• B. Busing students to achieve racial balance
• C. Voluntary integration plans only
• D. Ending desegregation efforts

Answer: (B)

The concept being tested is using student transportation to achieve desegregation, known as busing. In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the Supreme Court upheld busing as a constitutionally permissible tool for remedying the effects of segregation when other methods hadn’t achieved integration. The idea is to move students to schools across district lines or attendance zones so that schools become racially balanced, breaking the link between a student’s race and the school they attend. This decision affirmed that federal courts could order such remedies to dismantle de jure segregation and prevent resegregation, provided the plan is a reasonable, narrowly tailored means to that end. It’s distinct from simply redrawing district lines to create minority districts or relying only on voluntary integration plans, and it’s not about ending desegregation.