Progress has been made in Huntsville’s long and complicated quest to desegregate its school system.

Fifty-seven years ago, the City of Huntsville’s school system was put under federal oversight to try and eliminate/prevent segregationist policies affecting the city’s schoolchildren. In 2015 the U.S. Department of Justice and Huntsville agreed to a consent decree that created a pathway to ending the district’s federal intervention.

That pathway was contingent on improving the racial dynamics within six areas of the school system.

In recent days, the school board’s attorney announced a federal judge has acknowledged their progress in one of those areas: transportation.

Judge Madeline Haikala is quoted by WAFF as saying, “Because the Huntsville Board has demonstrated that it has, in good faith, eliminated to the extent practical the vestiges of de jure segregation from its transportation system and is committed to operating its transportation system in a non-discriminatory manner after federal supervision ends, the Court releases the Board from supervision of its transportation system under the 1970 desegregation order.”

The remaining five factors Huntsville must still improve are: student discipline; facilities; faculty and staff distribution; extracurricular activities; and access to course offerings.

Huntsville is one of several dozen school districts around the state under federal decrees to eliminate the effects of segregation in its school system.

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.