Decades have passed since a federal judge ruled Cleveland's segregated public schools discriminated against black students.
The court has overseen how city schools are run for 21 years, from hiring clerical staff to stripping the school board of its power and making the state directly responsible for operating the troubled school district.The state and district want the case resolved once and for all. They want the federal government to give up its hold, arguing that all that can be done to end segregation in the district has been done.
A hearing before U.S. District Judge George White was scheduled to begin Monday. It is a hot issue in Cleveland, where the last census said the city's population included 250,000 whites and 255,000 members of minority groups, mostly blacks.
Of the 72,000 students in Ohio's largest school district, 68 percent are black; in 1978, when a desegregation plan that eventually included widespread busing was adopted, blacks were 63 percent of the total.
The case dates back more than a generation, to a 1973 lawsuit charging racial imbalance in the district. Three years later, a federal judge found the state and Cleveland school board liable for running a segregated school district and placed the district under federal court supervision.
U.S. District Judge Robert Krupansky, who ended busing last year, became so frustrated with mismanagement of the debt-ridden schools that he ordered the state to take over.
Gov. George Voinovich signed a law in August that would shift leadership of the schools to Mayor Michael R. White. But the law requires that Judge White - no relation - agree to end the desegregation case first.
"This hearing could remove a big hurdle" to mayoral control of the district, said district lawyer Adrian Thompson.
Not everyone supports the effort to regain local control. The Cleveland Teachers Union and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have sued to block the takeover.
The judge was expected to decide whether the district has reached benchmarks agreed upon in 1994 for ending the case. Goals included racial balance in the student body and staff, as well as equal access to reading programs, magnet schools and other educational opportunities.
Margaret Anne Cannon, an attorney for the state, said the mission has been accomplished.
"The system has been fairer than it was in 1973 for a very long time," she said. "I don't believe it's the business of lawyers to run school systems. I don't believe it's the business of courts to run school systems."
But James Hardiman, who filed the original lawsuit, said it's too early too tell whether programs established to integrate the schools have worked - and he still sees signs of prejudice.
A controversy erupted in August after a school calendar cover was distributed depicting a black student in clothing associated with gangs - overalls, untied sneakers and a bandanna wrapped around his head.
"After all these years, this district - they don't get it," he said.