The civil rights leader who won a 26-year desegregation lawsuit against Chattanooga city schools now is calling for the federal government to investigate the Hamilton County school system for what he calls racial discrimination.
The move comes less than one week after James R. Mapp was honored during a Hamilton County Board of Education meeting for his civil rights work.
“It’s a fact that more money is spent on suburban schools than in the inner city,” said Mr. Mapp, citing new schools such as Signal Mountain Middle-High and East Hamilton Middle-High in East Brainerd. “They’re spending all around, and Brainerd and Orchard Knob Middle School have asbestos that should have been cleared around 1995.”
Mr. Mapp, a former NAACP leader, was among about a dozen organization members who voted this week to draft a letter calling for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
NAACP President Valoria Armstrong is drafting the letter, and Mr. Mapp said he wants it sent immediately.