S p e c i a l S u mma r y
A New
Diverse Majority
Students of Color
in the South’s Public Schools
For the first time in history, public schools in the American South
no longer enroll a majority of White students. African American,
Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, American Indian, and multi-racial
children now constitute slightly more than half of all students
attending public schools in the 15 states of the South. This
transformation establishes an important landmark in American
­diversity and a historic milestone for the only section of the
United States where racial slavery, White supremacy, and racial
segregation of schools were enforced though law and social
custom for more than two-thirds of the nation’s history.
In 2007, the Southern Education Foundation also announced in
its report, A New Majority, that low income students—children
eligible for free or reduced lunch—had become a majority in the
Students of Color in the South’s Public Schools
2009
Southern States’ Public School
Racial and Ethnic Composition
53.8%
7.2%
2009
16.8%
Native
American
Asian-Pacific & Other
3%
1%
Hispanic
20%
43.8%
66.0%
White
49%
SINCE 1867
46.3%
53.7%
41.4%
54.3%
51.2%
Percent of Students
of color enrolled
 30% and Below
 31% to 39%
 40% to 49%
 50% and Above
Black
27%
SEF
45.6%
31.2%
33.1%
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43.5%
54.8%
South’s public schools for the
first time in more than half a
century. Since then, the trend
has accelerated.
Students of Color in US Public Schools
2008
32.0%
As a result of these changes,
the South is now the first and
only region in the nation’s history
to have both a majority of low
income students and a majority
of students of color enrolled in
public schools. Four Southern
states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia) now have
a majority of both low income
students and students of color.
Two Southern states (Florida
and Maryland) have a majority
of students of color and a large
percentage of low income students, though not a majority.
The South’s new diverse majority
is shifting the demography of
public education within the
region. Today, for example, the
percentages of students of color
in public schools in Georgia and
Maryland equal the percentage
in Mississippi (54 percent).
Both Georgia and Maryland
also surpass the percentage
in Louisiana (51 percent).
16.0%
18.4%
56.9%
55.5%
16.1%
16.8%
23.2%
24.6%
38.5%
28.5%
14.9%
26.8%
23.9%
41.9%
70.4%
26.0%
21.4%
44.6% 21.1%
7.0%
16.3%
4.8%
7.5%
48.4% 27.8%
34.8%31.0%
45.1%
53.0% 47.0%
42.8%
43.2%
31.4%
33.0%
46.3%
53.6%
65.2%
41.1%
53.9%
50.8%
Percent of Students
of color enrolled
 30% and Below
 31% to 39%
 40% to 49%
 50% and Above
42.9%
80.6%
54.1%
Low Income Student Enrollment in US Public Schools
2008
38%
36%
44%
44%
42%
These developments constitute
perhaps the greatest challenge that
the South has faced since the 1954
Supreme Court opinion, Brown v.
Board of Education, outlawing
school segregation. They also
create the necessity for a profound,
unprecedented transformation
w w w. s o u t h e r n e d u c at i o n . o r g
32%
53%
Implications
2
21.1%
70.6%
Nationally, students of color
constituted a majority in the
public schools in 11 states in 2008.
Six of these states were in the
South and five were in the West.
5.9%
14.0%
23.6%
27.8%
47%
37%
27%
32%
33%
37%
34%
42%
35%
55%
58%
43%
40%
47%
41%
65%
33%
43%
37%
37%
52%
52%
66%
53%
34%
34% 42%
33%
50%
54%
55%
36%
36%
54%
53%
66%
Percent Enrolled
 0% to 25%
 26% to 49%
 50% and Above
31%
21%
49% 31%
30% 40%
49%
continue to expand and underachieve, leaving school without the
skills necessary for participation in a high-wage economy.
4th Grade NAEP Math Scores
Census South Student Groups – 2009
American
Indian
Trends Shaping the Emergence
of a New Diverse Majority
234
Asian
258
Hispanic
234
Black
223
White
African Americans were the only substantial body of nonWhite students in the public schools of the South for almost
100 years. The federal Office of Education reported in 1920 that
the percentage of African Americans in Southern public schools
was 26 percent. Afterwards, the percentage declined slightly
during each decade until 1960, when African Americans made
up 24 percent of the South’s public school population.
247
Low Income
200
This new diverse majority has emerged in the South’s public
schools because of a combination of historical, political, judicial,
and demographic changes that began more than 140 years ago.
229
210
220
230
240
250
Average Composite Scores
260
270
This chart includes NAEP data for the Census South, which includes
students in Delaware and the District of Columbia.
During these years, the adoption of segregation, disfranchisement,
and White supremacy by Southern states helped to suppress Black
enrollment in public schools. The segregated South’s agricultural
economy, which depended on cheap labor for more than 75 years
after emancipation, meant that White landowners usually valued
Black youth as workers—not as students. Many African Americans fled with their families to other parts of the nation in search
of better opportunities. From 1870 through the 1950s, five million
African Americans left the South. This “Great Migration” reconfigured America’s racial landscape, diminishing both the South’s
Black population and its Black enrollment in public schools.
in Southern education in order for the region to improve its
education, quality of life, and economy.
The students who now constitute the largest groups in the South’s
public schools are the students who in the aggregate are scoring
lowest on state-mandated tests and on national performance
examinations. In the South, for example, African American,
Hispanic, and American Indian students, as well as low income
students of all races and ethnicities, score lowest on the National
Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) exams. These lowerscoring students also graduate at the lowest rates in the South.
Beginning in the 1940s, White flight from the South’s public
schools began to influence public school enrollment. Spurred by
the school desegregation decisions of the US Supreme Court, the
South’s enrollment in private elementary and secondary schools
The South also lags behind the nation in per pupil expenditures.
Most students of color and low income students receive the
fewest educational resources
to support their success in the
Students of Color in Southern Public Schools
region’s public schools. As a result,
The consequences of these trends
go beyond education. In today’s
global economy, a large, unskilled
workforce is a major competitive
disadvantage. In this environment,
the South will become increasingly marginalized in the global
economy and fall further behind
if the region’s new and diverse
majorities in its public schools
1920 to 2009
60%
50%
Percent Enrolled
the Southern states are now
underfunding the education
of a majority of their students.
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1985
year
1990
1995
2000
2005
2007
2008
2009
Adjusted for TX and FL Hispanics
A N e w D i v e r s e M a j o r i t y – S p e c i a l S u mm a ry 3
Private School Enrollment as a Percentage of Total School Enrollment in the South
1940 to 2005
Percent of Total Enrollment
12%
10%
8%
slightly more than 11 percent of
the South’s population. In 2008,
14.9 percent of the South’s
population was Hispanic. From
2000 to 2008, both the Latino
and Black populations increased
faster in the South than in any
other region.
6%
4%
2%
0%
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
year
1995
rose by 42 percent—125,000 students—from 1940 to 1950. By 1958,
four years after the Court’s ruling in Brown outlawing segregated
public schools, the South’s private school enrollment jumped by
134 percent.
Overall, the South’s White flight helped to quadruple the percentage of students attending private schools from 1940 through 1980
and to decrease their numbers in the public schools. Since 2000,
the percentage of Southern students enrolled in private schools
(most of whom are White) has remained essentially flat at little
more than 10 percent.
In recent years, the South’s increase in the number of public
school students of color has been the result of a growing Latino
migration into the South and a reversal of the historical outmigration of Blacks from the region. In 1980, less than six percent
of the South’s residents were Hispanic. In 2000, Latinos made up
Growth of Black and Hispanic Populations
2000 to 2008
45%
40%
41%
35%
Higher birth rates among Hispanic
and African American populations
in the South also explain a
significant part of the increase in
non-White school enrollment. In
2000
2001
2003
2005
2007, women of color outside the
15 states of the South accounted
for 44 percent of live births, while
half of all births in the Southern states were by women of color.
Conclusion
The South that once built and sustained an economy and a society
on the under-education of children of color now has a majority
of students of color whose education and human development are
essential for its future in a high-wage, high-skilled economy. Today
the South is the only region of the country to have a majority of
both low income students and students of color in public schools.
This development emerged earlier in a few states but is unprecedented at the regional level. The new and diverse majorities
among public schoolchildren have changed—and will continue
to change—the South’s economic and educational imperatives.
This transformation in public school enrollment requires fundamental changes in how public education is financed and undertaken in order to ensure that all students are afforded a fair
opportunity for a good education. No challenge is now more
important than helping the South’s new and diverse majorities
in the public schools realize the full measure of their potential
for themselves as students and for the future of the entire region.
It is that simple and that profound.
30%
27%
25%
20%
The complete SEF Report, A New Diverse Majority: Students
of Color in the South’s Public Schools, is found in the publications section of SEF’s website, www.southerneducation.org.
15%
13%
10%
0%
SEF
7%
5%
SINCE 1867
Blacks
Hispanics
 South  Rest of Nation
4
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T h e S o u t h e r n E d u c at i o n F o u n d at i o n
135 Auburn Avenue, NE, 2nd Floor • Atlanta, GA 30303
www.southerneducation.org