Published: May 1, 1990

Protest In Selma: Tracking Ignites A Powder Keg

"And of course,'' he adds, "as you might imagine, the majority of students in levels two and three, the bottom levels, were black.''

Henry Pitts, a black parent of three of Selma's 5,900 students, first learned of the "leveling'' system after Roussell's effort to change it touched off public controversy. When he inquired at their schools, he discovered that each of his children was assigned to the lowest level.

"I was very upset about it,'' he says. "It's wrong; it's very wrong. If I'm paying taxes for your kid to get an education, I think my kid should get the same...