The Ayers Case

About the Book

This book sets forth events and people involved in the settlement of the Ayers case from the filing of the law suit, inclusive of discussions and proposals designed to settle the case through the federal courts.  Numerous proposals that included merging schools, closing schools, deleting programs, are discussed.  There was wide spread disagreement with the plaintiff’s proposal and the defendant’s proposal.

Major issues and decisions of the courts are discussed.  Also many pros and cons of the settlement agreement that was crafted out in the year 2001 are cited.  The plaintiffs did not agree with the settlement.  Consequently an appeal was made to the Supreme Court in an effort to get what they wanted.  The final decision of the United States Supreme Court is included.

About the Author

The author worked as an instructor, professor and ultimately a department head for thirty five years at a historically black university; namely, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, Mississippi. He lived and saw first handed the impact that underfunding had on a university. This caused him to have to make wise decisions so as to not interfere with the delivery of service to the students. Inadequate funding caused budget freezes and disgruntled faculty.

He was a member of the faculty at Mississippi Valley State University when the late Jake Ayers filed a law suit against the state of Mississippi. The alleged charge was that Mississippi maintained racially segregated effects of its prior dual system of post secondary education. He followed the case from its inception in 1975 to the end in 2004. Court denials, appeals, hearings, meeting plaintiffs and defendants opinions took place, intermittently, for the next twenty nine years. Finally a settlement plan was hammered out in the year 2001. He wrote about the events that took place in an effort to settle the Ayers Case.

In his opinion, there was a lot of foot dragging through the courts for this case to last for twenty-nine years. He also believed that Mississippi’s prejudice and racist laws, at that time, played a major role in the case lasting so long.