A Different World: Enduring Effects of School Desegregation on Ideology and Attitudes

Abstract

In 1975, a federal court ordered the desegregation of public schools in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Students were assigned to a busing schedule that depended on the first letter of their last name, creating quasi-random variation in exposure to inner-city schools. Drawing on administrative voter registration records and an original survey, the paper estimates the long-run effects on political participation and preferences among white students. The findings point to a poverty-centered version of the contact hypothesis, in which witnessing economic deprivation durably changes attitudes toward inequality and fairness.