Forensic demography and civil rights

Area of Science:

• Demography
• Public Policy Analysis
• Social Justice Studies

Background:

• Mississippi enacted a law in 1965 requiring tuition for children with out-of-state parents.
• The Department of Justice suspected racial discrimination and unconstitutionality.
• Evidence was needed to demonstrate the law's discriminatory impact on Negro families.

Purpose of the Study:

• To gather data proving the Mississippi tuition law disproportionately affected Negro children.
• To assess the economic capacity of affected families to pay the imposed tuition.
• To support litigation challenging the discriminatory nature of the law.

Main Methods:

• Initial attempts involved published census data and limited NAACP Legal Defense Fund records.
• These sources proved insufficient for a robust legal case.
• A retabulation of 1960 Census records was conducted to analyze children not living with either parent.

Main Results:

• Retabulation revealed 82% of school-age children living without either parent in Mississippi were Negro.
• The average affected Negro household had 6.8 persons and an annual income of $1,429.
• The tuition fee represented a significant financial burden, exceeding $250 per person annually.

Conclusions:

• The data confirmed the Mississippi tuition law was racially discriminatory.
• The law disproportionately impacted impoverished Negro families.
• Demographic analysis proved instrumental in implementing public policy and achieving legal recourse.