Montclair Board of Education

After the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, school segregation became illegal in the United States. However, by 1966 Montclair's schools were still segregation. A group of families sued the Montclair Board of Education in 1966. This case is known as Rice v. Montclair Board of Education. New Jersey courts ruled that Montclair had to desegregate the town schools. There was a lot of disagreement on how to do that, but a group of mothers suggested the school become a magnet system, where each school had a special focus and families could choose what elementary and middle schools they wanted their children to attend.