NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has brought an end to more than 60 years of federal oversight over a Louisiana school district that was once ordered to eliminate racial segregation.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the long-standing desegregation order against the Concordia Parish School Board on Tuesday, delivering a win to President Donald Trump’s administration. The White House has made dismantling such court-ordered plans a priority, and the Concordia Parish case has become a central example in that effort to close out legal cases rooted in the Civil Rights era.
For decades, the U.S. Justice Department fought to uphold these types of desegregation orders — but that stance reversed under the Trump administration. Officials now characterize the remaining orders as the federal government overstepping into matters that should be handled at the local level. Louisiana officials have echoed that view, calling the orders outdated remnants of a time when Black students were barred from attending certain schools.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the ruling with a pointed statement: “The good people of Concordia Parish elected their school board to govern their schools — not unelected federal judges. Today’s decision puts that authority back where it belongs.”
The Concordia Parish School Board did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. The families who originally filed the lawsuit are no longer part of the case.
The legal battle began in 1965, when Concordia Parish was a segregated community and home to a violent splinter group of the Ku Klux Klan. Black families living in Ferriday — a town along the central-eastern edge of Louisiana — filed suit demanding access to all-white schools, prompting the federal government to step in. As the district began integrating, many white families left Ferriday.
Over time, the district’s schools began to mirror the demographics of their surrounding communities. Ferriday remains predominantly Black and low-income, while the neighboring town of Vidalia is mostly white and benefits from tax revenue generated by a hydroelectric plant.
Some parents and civil rights organizations have maintained that desegregation orders are still valuable tools for addressing the lasting effects of segregation, including racial gaps in student discipline, academic offerings, and teacher hiring practices.
The Concordia Parish order had previously been used to require a predominantly white charter school — which opened in 2013 — to give enrollment preference to Black students in order to build a more racially integrated student body.
