Collections

This collection contains documents related to South Bend, Indiana attorney David W. Albert's involvement as the legal representative for Brookins, et al. in the lawsuit of Brookins v. South Bend Community School Corporation (SBCSC) starting in 1980. The Brookins party alleged that the SBCSC and its representatives had engaged in various acts of discrimination with the intent and effect of segregating students and faculty on the basis of race in the South Bend, Indiana public school system. After the SBCSC decided on a desegregation plan, the Brookins party argued in court that the proposed plan would involve closing schools in the system that were racially integrated or could be easily integrated, therefore working against the goal of desegregation. The collection includes legal documents from the proceedings of the case itself; research files utilized by Albert to gather and present statistics and data about racial distribution within the South Bend community and schools in the SBCSC; and research into legal precedent established by prior cases related to school desegregation. The collection also includes minutes from SBCSC Board of Trustees meetings from 1977-1987 and documents related to the SBCSC Community Advisory Committee that was formed to provide community input on the formation of the desegregation plan, including Albert's participation in the Facilities Subcommittee in the early 1980s.