Federal lawyers seek consolidation of Mississippi schools

District Building SmallGREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) – The U.S. Department of Justice will present testimony Wednesday as it tries to persuade a federal judge to order the Cleveland school district to consolidate its middle and high schools.

Witnesses with the Cleveland school district have spent two days telling U.S. District Judge Debra Brown that she should rely on voluntary measures to encourage white enrollment at D.M. Smith Middle School and East Side High School. Both schools, once all-black by law, today enroll no full-time white students.

The Cleveland school district predicts mandatory consolidation will cause the white minority in the 3,700-student district to flee, leading schools to become heavily or all-black. But federal officials say that after a court ruling found Cleveland hasn’t done enough to integrate, consolidation is best approach to end disparities.