Louisiana Cannot Turn Back the Clock on Civil Rights
ET-Louisiana and Denise Forte Statement on the Ending of Desegregation Orders in Louisiana and What This Means Nationally

The decision to end federal desegregation oversight in Concordia Parish sends a clear message: states and school districts may ignore civil rights protections and allow education inequities to deepen and grow. It is a warning not just about education, but about what happens when elected officials abdicate their responsibility to the communities they represent.

The often-misrepresented promise of local control cannot become permission to look away from racial isolation, unequal investment, or barriers that continue to shape students’ futures. For generations, Black families have had to rely on federal protections because state and locally controlled systems too often denied their children equal access to well-resourced schools, experienced educators, and meaningful opportunities.

This moment also reflects a broader pattern in Louisiana and elsewhere. As oversight of school desegregation is abandoned, political leaders are also advancing maps and policies that weaken Black voting power. Education equity and voting rights may sound like different issues, but they rest on the same democratic principle: Black communities deserve an equal voice in the institutions that determine their lives. When protections are stripped away in schools and at the ballot box, the message is that hard-won civil rights can be treated as temporary.

That danger extends far beyond just Louisiana. Across the country, leaders are invoking “local control” and “race neutrality” to justify retreating from the responsibility to confront present-day inequality. Perhaps of greatest concern is the refrain that civil rights protections have done their work and are no longer needed.

Louisiana has invested in successfully turning around literacy outcomes for many traditionally underserved students. It has invested in expanding access to evidence-based curriculum for students across the state. If it wants to continue improving academic outcomes, it cannot abandon civil rights and equal representation. Instead, state and local leaders must strengthen transparency, listen to Black families, and demonstrate that every student has access to excellent schools and every voter has an equal voice. Civil rights do not sustain themselves. They endure only when leaders and institutions choose to protect them.