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Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins Paperback – February 15, 2014

by Joshua M. Dunn (Author)

4.5 9 ratings

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In 1987 Judge Russell Clark mandated tax increases to help pay for improvements to the Kansas City, Missouri, School District in an effort to lure white students and quality teachers back to the inner-city district. Yet even after increasing employee salaries and constructing elaborate facilities at a cost of more than $2 billion, the district remained overwhelmingly segregated and student achievement remained far below national averages.

Just eight years later the U.S. Supreme Court began reversing these initiatives, signifying a major retreat from Brown v. Board of Education. In Kansas City, African American families opposed to the district court's efforts organized a takeover of the school board and requested that the court case be closed. Joshua Dunn argues that Judge Clark's ruling was not the result of tyrannical "judicial activism" but was rather the logical outcome of previous contradictory Supreme Court doctrines. High Court decisions, Dunn explains, necessarily limit the policy choices available to lower court judges, introducing complications the Supreme Court would not anticipate. He demonstrates that the Kansas City case is a model lesson for the types of problems that develop for lower courts in any area in which the Supreme Court attempts to create significant change. Dunn's exploration of this landmark case deepens our understanding of when courts can and cannot successfully create and manage public policy.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date

February 15, 2014
Dimensions

6.12 x 0.55 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1469614618
ISBN-13

978-1469614618
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Deeply researched, well informed, and clearly written. . . . A premier case study of race and education in the 1980s and 1990s.--The Journal of Southern History

A meticulous, well-documented political history of school desegregation in the Kansas City Missouri School District. . . . I applaud him for the richness of detail in the history and politics of this tragic folly and his courage in characterizing the events and individuals. He does not pull any punches.--Political Science Quarterly

Review

The case of Missouri v. Jenkins is notable because of the exceptionally broad remedy ordered by the federal courts and the vast sums poured into the school district as a result of the lawsuit. It is also notable because of the disappointingly limited results achieved in terms of either meaningful desegregation or improved academic achievement for the intended beneficiaries of the massive legal effort. Dunn tells this ironic tale well and places the events in legal and political context. Complex Justice will prove highly useful to readers in law, legal studies, public policy, and political science.--David I. Levine, Hastings College of the Law, University of California

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press (February 15, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1469614618
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1469614618
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 0.55 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,459,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #391 in Discrimination Constitutional Law (Books)
- #5,345 in Administrative Law (Books)
- #11,720 in Discrimination & Racism

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4.5 9 ratings

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Barbara Madden

Complex Justice

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2012

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I am finding this book fascinating. The subject matter is complex, but the author has taken the time to synthesize the material so a layperson can understand deeply and meaningfully. I recommend that all education leaders and political leaders take the time to read Complex Justice. To paraphrase a great quote--if we do not know our history, we are destined to repeat it--over and over again to the detriment of our young people.

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Frank T. Manheim

Important story of the most extreme court-ordered school desegregation in America: Kansas City

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2020

I suggest this is a sleeper - a landmark story in American K-12 educational history: it chronicles a well-intentioned, record-expensive and disastrously counterproductive outcome of court-ordered desegregation. It is noteworthy for the extreme efforts to use magnet schools to reattract students to Kansas City Missouri public schools from their flight to Kansas and private schools. It required some $2 billion (now much more in 2020 dollars) in state, federal, and local funds. Its results led to a change in a student population that was 18% minority (according to Dunn) to a city school system that was 87% minority and lost its accreditation in the 1990s (according to article in U.S. Black Engineer by Manheim and Hellmuth, 2006).

In a way, it is a story of America, where strongly held attitudes supporting flawed policies lead to extreme countermovements. Kansas City is a special tragedy because the city was noted for its early progressive attitude toward desegregation. The city had model growth following overthrow of the Pendergast machine in 1938. The quality of its housing for all income levels was exceptional (distinctively using local limestone for construction). Its schools were a source of pride. as were its park systems and residential developments (except for restrictive covenants that have clouded the name of J.C. Nichols, their noted architect).

Court-ordered busing that ended in1995 effectively left much of central-northern Kansas city moon landscape, and the city lost some 50,000 population over 20 years. The road back has been long and painful. Ironically, two outstanding formerly Black high schools, Lincoln in KCMO, and Sumner HS in Kansas City Kansas ,were not shut down or merged as were most segregated high schools elsewhere in the U.S.. They became "college preparatory academies" and remain the best high schools in their respective parts of Kansas City. Lincoln is 95% minority while Sumner is approximately 50% Black and has maintained the highest verbal scores among Kansas high schools.

The few but significant reviews tell their own story. Like many contemporary Americans, the three-star reviewer is impatient with authoritative detail no matter how significant the issue. Other reviews mention cities (e.g. Cleveland) that had troubled busing histories.

A distinguished black political scientist and I recently included Missouri among the significant areas for pre-desegregation Black education in America in an article. The histories of high-quality African American secondary education in Kansas City and St. Louis extend back to the early years of the 20th Century. Black families from more rural areas of the State were attracted to work opportunities and good Black schools in these cities. Race prejudice, though present, was not as harsh as in the deeper South.

if books like this became better known instead of the usual works that land on the bestseller and top Amazon reviewer lists we could have the kind of citizen knowledgeability that would help resolve many of the problems we now experience.

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Of interest only to those already interested.

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2016

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No single rating could suffice for this book. It covers two quite different topics--(1) the rough and tumble of education policy and politics, and its financing, as played out in a city where, not long ago the Pendergast machine was In Charge; and (2) teh dream that the federal courts and agencies could remake the system to root out what remained of discrimination by forcing a dysfunctional school board, with a virtually unlimited budget, to create a new .system of such excellence that it would lure white students back from the suburban districts to which they had fled o escape the schools. It is not surprising that this quixotic effort failed. What is astonishing is that a number of intelligent people thought it had a chance of success.

My own interest in the book was as an attorney who feels strongly that our courts should not be making policy--that's the job of our elected officials. This book is red meat for anyone with that philosophy. But at almost 200 pages of text, and a number of footnotes I admit having not read, I found it quite a bit too long. I would have been satisfied with a "think piece" in one of the few remaining magazines which offer such material--perhaps The Atlantic. Having said which, if one is looking for an encyclopedic report on what can go wrong when well-meaning people try to implement bad plans, it's all here. But I would think anyone interested in the issues would already be well aware of how petty the bickering of frustrated folk convinced of their own rectitude can be.

My only other criticism is that even as an attorney quite familiar with articles laden with case references I had difficulty with his handling of the cases that lay behind the difficulties with which the District Court and Eighth Circuit were struggling. To most readers, including me, the names of the cases appearing in text some number of pages after after they first mentioned doesn't bring back to mind the principle (if any) of that case. Far more helpful to assign a nickname to the few key cases, so that when they reappear it is easier to remember what they stood for. And to avoid citation of more than a single case to illustrate a point--it isn't necessary.

With no prior knowledge of the case, I felt that Dunn was an excellent autor. He took pains to explain why decdisions were made as they were, and avoided casting blame too casually.

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dre

This was never about race it was about taxes.

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2013

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As the author stated this is a mostly forgotten case. I only remember because I lived in Kansas City at the time. However I never attended the Kansas City school District. I remember vividly the number of times tax increases were put to a vote of people and it failed every single time. So supporters of increased taxation used this farce of a desegregation case to steal more money from the people and got a federal judge to sign off on it. However as the author shows this case was never about desegregation or about improving the education for local children it was about corrupt politicians stealing more money from the local citizens.

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