Hobson v. Hansen

The D.C. school system (defendant), through Superintendent Hansen (defendant), grouped students into rigid, largely permanent tracks - ranging from special academic to honors - based on standardized aptitude test scores, with lower tracks offering substantially inferior curricula and little chance for students to move up. Civil-rights activist Hobson (plaintiff) sued, alleging the track system discriminated on the basis of race and socioeconomic status, noting that lower tracks were overwhelmingly Black and poor while upper tracks skewed white and affluent.