*On this date in 1978. Reed v. Rhodes was decided. This was a desegregation case of the Cleveland Public School system. African American parents voiced the first rumblings of discontent in the late 1950s.
The protests reverberated through the city streets during the early 1960s. Against this backdrop, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) voiced its objections to the educational system in Cleveland, suing the Cleveland Public Schools and the State of Ohio in 1973. In Reed v. Rhodes, Case No. C73-1300, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants intentionally created and maintained a segregated school system based on race violated the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The controversy surrounding the racial segregation of the school system divided the community. On August 31, 1976, Judge Frank J. Battisti held that the State of Ohio and the Cleveland Public Schools intentionally created and maintained a segregated school system, which violated the 14th Amendment rights of Robert Anthony Reed III and other similarly situated Cleveland schools’ children.
