[79] GROUP DISORDERS IN URBAN SCHOOLS The Effects of Racial Desegregation and Social Emancipation

This paper formulates and tests a causal model of racial violence in the public schools using data from a sample of 119 American cities. The results tend to support three conclu-sions regarding the outbreak of school disorders during the latter 1960s. First, the data suggest that the causes of school disorders are rooted in the community-at-large as well as in the schools. Second, the results show that the most direct and immediate school factor is the extent to which urban school systems are racially desegregated. Finally, the data do not support riot theories based on the assumption of social marginality. Rather, the results appear most consistent with interpretations which stress their parapolitical character. Numerous reports have documented the incidence and growth of public school disturbances during the late 1960s (Lemberg Center, 1969; Bailey, 1970). By 1969, school disorders had become a national concern as most urban school systems reported student protests and / or racial disturbances (Bailey, 1970). Although the incidence of school disturbances has declined during the 1970s, racial conflict in the schools is still a key public concern because of the growing number of urban school districts experiencing court-ordered desegregation (Farley, 1975) and the rising incidence of school violence an