Say It Ain't So, Ernie!

The racial politics of education in Omaha, Nebraska has come full circle.  An overwhelmingly white state, Nebraska's minority population (African American, Asian and Hispanic) is roughly 10% as reported in the latest available census bureau statistics. Of this, the African American population is mostly concentrated in the two largest cities - Omaha and Lincoln. The public school systems in these two cities, including the suburban ones, are good and consistently rate well nationally.  Omaha has the largest public school district in Nebraska which has graduated some famous alumni such as actor Henry Fonda and philosopher Saul Kripke among others.

The Omaha public school system is 44 percent white, 32 percent black, 21 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian or Native American. Omaha has a large African American population in the north side of the city and a growing Hispanic community in the south. The rest of the city, including the western suburbs is largely white. The Nebraska state legislature has recently passed a law that allows the integrated Omaha public schools to essentially resegregate along racial lines - black, white and Hispanic. How was Nebraska's unicameral legislature which has just one black member, emboldened enough to take such a stunningly backward and racially divisive step which may violate the federal equal protection clause?  The law  passed 30 - 16 in the Nebraska legislature because the "angriest black man" in Nebraska, state senator Ernie Chambers was the driving force behind it. Ernie Chambers, a fiery liberal from north Omaha is a colorful character whose bearded face and signature T-shirt wearing style distinguishes him from his mostly clean shaven colleagues in suits. He is also the only African American member of the Nebraska state legislature. Chambers introduced this measure and conservative white legislators who have long hated Omaha's school system jumped on his segregationist band wagon finding cover behind a black man's anger for what they may have wanted to accomplish all along ! 

Ernie Chambers is Nebraska's only African-American state senator, a man who has fought for causes including the abolition of capital punishment and the end of apartheid in South Africa. A magazine writer once described him as the "angriest black man in Nebraska."

He was also a driving force behind a measure passed by the Legislature on Thursday and signed into law by the governor that calls for dividing the Omaha public schools into three racially identifiable districts, one largely black, one white and one mostly Hispanic. The law, which opponents are calling state-sponsored segregation, has thrown Nebraska into an uproar, prompting fierce debate about the value of integration versus what Mr. Chambers calls a desire by blacks to control a school district in which their children are a majority.

Not all Nebraskans agree with the new law although it has wide support in the mostly white western suburbs of the city. The suburbanites see the law as a safety measure against busing in case the city of Omaha were one day to annex the outlying independent, wealthy school districts under the slogan of "One City, One School District."

Nebraska's attorney general, Jon Bruning, said in a letter to a state senator that preliminary scrutiny had led him to believe that the law could violate the federal Constitution's equal protection clause, and that he expected legal challenges.

Civil rights scholars call the legislation the most blatant recent effort in the nation to create segregated school systems or, as in Omaha, to resegregate districts that had been integrated by court order. Omaha ran a mandatory busing program from 1976 to 1999.

Dr. Mackiel, the Omaha superintendent, said the school board was "committed to protecting young people's constitutional rights." "If that includes litigation, then that certainly is a consideration," Dr. Mackiel said.

Some of Nebraska's richest and most powerful residents have also questioned the legislation, including the billionaire investor Warren Buffett as well as David Sokol, the chief executive of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, which employs thousands in Nebraska and Iowa.

"This is going to make our state a laughingstock, and it's going to increase racial tensions and segregation," Mr. Sokol said in an interview.

Brenda J. Council, a prominent black lawyer whose niece and nephew attend Omaha's North High School, said of the law, "I'm adamantly opposed because it'll only institutionalize racial isolation."

"This is a disaster," said Ben Gray, a television news producer and co-chairman of the African-American Achievement Council, a group of volunteers who mentor black students. "Throughout our time in America, we've had people who continuously fought for equality, and from Brown vs. Board of Education, we know that separate is not equal. We cannot go back to segregating our schools."

And what is Ernie Chambers' rationale for this?

"Several years ago I began discussing in my community the possibility of carving our area out of Omaha Public Schools and establishing a district over which we would have control," Mr. Chambers said during the debate on the floor of the Legislature. "My intent is not to have an exclusionary system, but we, meaning black people, whose children make up the vast majority of the student population, would control."

But it appears that Chambers whom I considered a maverick and a fearless champion of liberal causes in the red state of Nebraska (where my family had lived for eleven years in the 80's and the 90's) is also acting out of a long held personal grudge.

He acknowledged that he had nursed a latent fury with the Omaha district since enduring the taunting of schoolmates during classroom readings of "Little Black Sambo" when he attended during the 1940's.

I left Omaha eight years ago. But I have many fond memories of the Husker state where my two children grew up and graduated high school. My message to Ernie Chambers is that anger at social wrongs and unfairness is a good quality in an elected official but ego driven vindictive rage is a destructive force. Time for you to step down, Ernie.

Comments

[Jackie Scholar]

As a current Omaha resident I am appalled at what happened last week. Ruchira - you summarized a lot of the events leading up to this very well. What bothers me is that no time was allowed for conducting any research as to what the consequences would be if this law was signed. Another disturbing point was that the Governor of the state who should represent all factions took one side which was a major mistake. He should have stayed out of this issue and definitely asked for time to research the issue. It will go to the courts and the public sentiment is extremely anti-Ernie Chambers.

[Ruchira Paul]

Thanks, Jackie. I had guessed that you would feel this way. I hope there will be a court challenge to this measure and sanity will prevail. I am very disappointed in Ernie Chambers.

[Maina Paul]

Sounds like huge news, as far as testing the legal limits of "gerrymandering" a school district. But more interesting to me in terms of the personality and social forces behind the legislation.

Also, I find it interesting, Mrs. Paul, that you take this position on racially integrated schools as an abstract, public matter, but that you chose to locate your family just outside the Omaha city line for the express purpose of sending your children to the lily-white Millard Schools (which, one might guess, was especially jarring coming from a racially integrated, urban elementary school). Perhaps you would make a different decision now.

[Ruchira Paul]

Ms Paul:
Actually I probably would. Make a different decision this time. In the 1980's, I was quite naive about the whole school integration issue in US schools. I was more concerned about national school ratings and what other Nebraskans had to say about local school districts. Millard schools were highly recommended. And remember we did our bit to racially integrate them!

[Ruchira Paul]

And Ms Paul, perhaps you can write a legal opinion on this.

[Samid Kulkarni]

But, why make a different decision? Both of your children have grown up to be upstanding citizens and no doubt their schooling had some role to play in this. As we say in the middle-west, why fix something that's not broken?

[Ruchira Paul]

Mr. Kulkarni:
A different decision in the 80's would have been just as good for my "upstanding" children as the one I made. Omaha Central High, as I learnt later, is (or at least was) an excellent school.

Since your own aptitude for picking innovative names is unsurpassed, perhaps you would like to leave a comment on my post about name changes, Changing Nomenclature... I am sure you will have a keen insight on that matter.