American Apartheid

Participants in the Case

Judge E. Gordon West   Handled the desegregation case from 1961 until 1978, Judge West twice declared that the system was unitary but was reversed both times by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The first major desegregation effort occurred in 1969.

Judge John V. Parker   Handled the desegregation case from 1978-2001.  Handed down the massive 1981 court order, which ordered major pairing and clustering at the elementary level and desegregated middle and high school districts. His order was upheld by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1983.

Judge James Brady   Assigned the desegregation case in 2001. Will eventually hear the board’s request to be declared unitary.

Robert Williams   NAACP’s attorney throughout the modern history of the desegregation case.

John Ward   School Board attorney from 1965 until his death in 1988.

Robert Hammond   Assistant School Board attorney 1978-88, School Board Attorney 1988-95

Michael Garrard School Board attorney from 1996-2001

Franz Marshall   Lead U.S. Justice Department attorney for the East Baton Rouge Parish case since the late 1970s.

NAACP

Johnnie Jones   Attorney who filed the original desegregation lawsuit on behalf of 37 African-American students in 1956.

Roena Wilford   One of the 37 children named in the 1956 lawsuit. Currently a professor at Southern University.

Charles Burchell   Participant in the Freedom of Choice plan moving students from Capitol and McKinley to Baton Rouge High in 1964.

Dr. D’Orsay Bryant   Former head of the NAACP

George Eames   President of the Baton Rouge NAACP when the case was reactivated in 1978 and served in that capacity through the 1980s.

Alvin Washington   Current NAACP President and a major figure in the 1996 Consent Decree between the School Board, NAACP and U.S. Justice Department.

Consultants

William M. & William R. Gordon   Court appointed desegregation monitors.

Christine Rossell   Former Justice Department and School System consultant. Primary author of the desegregation plan for the 1996 Consent Decree.

East Baton Rouge Parish Schools Superintendents

Lloyd Funchess   (served 1955-1961) Superintendent when original suit was filed. Later served as Superintendent for the Louisiana State School for the Deaf.

Lloyd Lindsey   (served 1961-1964) Superintendent when Freedom of Choice plan was implemented.

Robert Aertker   (served 1965-1975) Superintendent during the first major desegregation plan in 1969.

Clyde Lindsey   (served 1976-1980) Superintendent when the case was reactivated by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Raymond Arveson   (served 1980-1987) Was the Superintendent during the main hearings on the desegregation case and oversaw the implementation of the major desegregation court order in 1981.

Bernard Weiss   (served 1987-1995) Created the Redesign program to help voluntarily desegregate schools. 

Gary Matthews   (served 1995-2001) Spearheaded the consent decree with the other parties in the case in 1996.  Helped pass the first construction tax plan in 30 years.

Clayton Wilcox   Current Interim Superintendent.

East Baton Rouge Parish School Board

Press Robinson   First African-American member of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and a former president of the board. Only board member still in office from the time when the major desegregation court order was handed down in 1980.

Roger Moser   Current Board President.

Bill Black   Former kids television show host and current EBR Board Member.

Ingrid Kelley   School Board member and former teacher.

Patrice Naquille   Current Board member.

Others

John Womack   Zachary Mayor and spearheading Zachary’s efforts to get a separate school system.