(The Center Square) – A decades-old civil rights lawsuit filed against Bossier Parish schools has been revived following state and federal efforts to end long-running school desegregation orders in Louisiana.
In recent months, Bossier schools and NAACP attorneys have filed a flurry of legal measures in the 1965 lawsuit that seeks to end racially segregated public schooling in the district. The actions come as Louisiana and the Trump administration work to dismiss federal desegregation orders and give local districts more control.
Bossier has not demonstrated that it is entirely desegregated, said lead plaintiff attorney Kathryn Sadasivan, who works for the New-York based NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. New plaintiffs in the case allege ongoing disparities in their children’s schools, including in disciplinary practices, the quality of school buildings, inequality among faculty and students’ access to advanced courses.
“There’s no comprehensive plan to bring about change,” Sadasivan said.
The Center Square was unable to obtain a response from Bossier Parish schools prior to publication.
Federal courts have dismissed similar cases in districts in DeSoto and Plaquemines parishes, effectively removing court supervision over desegregation efforts and shifting responsibility to school board trustees.
Judges have declined to lift desegregation orders in St. John the Baptist, St. Mary and Concordia districts.
Republican leaders have pushed to end the orders, viewing them as government overreach and burdensome to districts that integrated long ago.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has worked to dismiss the mandates, which require districts to track how students are assigned to schools and the locations of new schools, submit annual compliance reports and obtain court approval for new attendance zones or proposed school closures.
There is no indication that Murrill’s office is participating in the Bossier case but she is referenced by plaintiff attorneys in the court documents.
The NAACP’s court filings are partially a response to the Trump administration’s support of striking down the orders, Sadasivan said, but the organization’s primary concern is that racial inequity persists in schools.
An earlier court decision signaled that Bossier was on a trajectory toward dismissal. In February 2024, the court recognized that Bossier eliminated past racial segregation in the areas of transportation, extracurricular activities and facilities. The ruling was unopposed.
Interest in the case resurfaced last month, when the Trump administration swapped out three attorneys for John P. Mertens, a senior attorney in the Department of Justice’s Educational Opportunities Section.
Ten days later, Baton Rouge civil rights attorney Gideon T. Carter III enrolled as counsel for new plaintiffs Omari Ho-Sang and Katraya Williams, whose children are enrolled in Bossier schools, and the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP.
