Appeals Court Declares Charleston Schools Unitary

By Peter Schmidt

Charleston County, S.C., has eliminated the vestiges of educational segregation despite the fact many of its schools remain overwhelmingly black or white, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has ruled.

Although some fairly technical aspects of the case remain to be decided or settled in lower court, the circuit-court decision essentially relieves the 938-square-mile district of the possibility that it would have to bus students to achieve racial balance, laywers in the case said last week.

The court's decision "pretty much puts an end to litigation that has been pending now for 11 or 12 years'' and "lets the school district get back to education,'' said Alfred A. Lindseth, a lawyer from Atlanta who...