Nearly six decades after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racially segregated schools, the state of Maryland is moving toward trial in a $2 billion federal lawsuit charging that the state has failed to dismantle its dual system of higher education.
The trial, scheduled for June 27 before a federal judge, would be the first of its kind in 15 years, according to civil rights scholars and lawyers. And it will unfold amid increasing concerns by leaders of historically black colleges and others that a number of states either are not meeting or are backsliding on their legal obligations to fully desegregate their higher education systems.
