TSU to get millions as deseg suit ends - Court to drop oversight of 38-year crusade for equity

Nashville Tennessean ^ | 9/21/6 | RALPH LOOS

[SmithL]

A desegregation lawsuit finally ends after 38 years.

[SmithL]

The Tennessean is the only source I've found for this, and we can't excerpt from any Gannett paper. Here's a link to the story: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/NEWS04/609210406

[stylin19a]

Hey...great read. I know one can't get the full details in a one page article, but near as I can figure, she sued to stop something from happening before it was even happening.

In the late 1960s, when the suit was filed, University of Tennessee officials were seeking expansion of its Nashville campus. Geier feared UT-Nashville would become a predominantly white four-year school with a first-rate campus, while historically black TSU would gradually wilt away.

Geier happened to be clerking in Barrett's office. With his help, she sued the state to keep it from perpetuating dual, race-based higher education

If this is true, I wonder why the court took the case ?

[SmithL]

Back when I took classes at UT-Nashville, we had classes over a drug store, in a really old downtown building, with no air conditioner or elevator.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

If this is true, I wonder why the court took the case ?

There may have been a few choice memos on file. I've seen some amazing s*** get into the records at various places. One 1970s community college project in California was started by means of a memo from the head of the Community College District titled "WE NEED A NIGGER COLLEGE." The author figured that it would never see the light of day--and it didn't, until discovery in a lawsuit.

[OrangeDaisy]

This lawsuit has made the biggest mess of the Nashville & mid-state higher education system that I have ever seen. TSU is and always has been predominately black, and they wiped UT Nashville from the face of the earth over this so-called segregation issue. The only public 4-year institution in Nashville is TSU mandated by this lawsuit. Because UT is the largest university system in Tennessee, losing their Nashville presence meant that we lost easy access to tons of degree programs that TSU did not offer. Most people flee to MTSU in Murfreesboro or Austin Peay in Clarksville(both about 40 miles from Nashville) to have a broader choice of degrees. Also, the lawsuit gave TSU the right of first refusal on any new degree program developed by any mid-state public university. That means that the other universities had very little motivation to develop new programs because TSU would just steal all their hard work.