A decade later, all sides praise the progress

CHAMPAIGN – When Carol Ashley first came to Champaign in 1996 to look at schools, top district administrators were all white. Black students rode buses every day to schools far from home.

"If someone today called a Barkstall parent and said, 'Your student's going to another school next year,' that parent would be up in arms," said Ashley, a Chicago attorney who represented plaintiffs – all mothers of black children – in legal actions resulting in a consent decree.

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