Make plans to join the League of Women Voters of Greater Birmingham for a discussion of School Desegregation in Alabama. A panel of renowned experts, Dr. Joe Bagley, Dr. Orletta Rush, and Attorney Whit Colvin, will talk with us and explain why so many school systems remain under decades-old federal court orders monitoring the progress of school integration.

Dr. Joe Bagley holds BS and MA degrees from Auburn University and a PhD from Georgia State University. He teaches 20th Century U.S. Politics and Law, Civil Rights, and U.S. Legal and Constitutional History at the Georgia State Perimeter Campus. Dr. Bagley is author ofThe Politics of White Rights: Race, Justice, and Integrating America which “examines white resistance to school desegregation litigation, the development of a politics of ‘law and order,’ and the defense of certain ‘white rights,’ which are now shielded by color-masked laws designed to withstand legal challenges.

Dr. Orletta Rush is Executive Director of Special Initiatives with the Jefferson County Board of Education. She is overseeing the district’s efforts to obtain unitary status. She holds both a Bachelor’s degree (Auburn University) and a Master’s degree (Troy University) in Elementary Education and Teaching. Dr. Rush earned the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from Samford University where she focused on Educational Leadership and Administration. Before coming to the Jefferson County Board of Education in 2016, Dr. Rush was Principal at Lipscomb Elementary School and later Principal at Brighton Middle School.