Segregation trends in Chicago exemplify the pattern in big cities. Of the over one million students enrolled in public schools, 30% are black, 13% are Latino, and slightly more than 50% are white. Sixty-nine percent of black students attend schools that are 90-100% minority. Sixty-three percent of white students are enrolled in schools that are 90-100% white. All but one of these schools is located in the suburbs of Chicago, and 94% of the students in the 90-100% minority schools attend schools within the Chicago city limits.

March
On the 22nd, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 over President Reagan's veto. The Act corrects a 1984 Supreme Court decision, Grove City College v. Bell, 465 U.S. 555 (1984), that limited the government's ability to withhold federal funds from institutions that discriminated on the basis of race or sex.

June
In Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U.S. 450 (1988), the Supreme Court reaffirms that education is not a fundamental right.