From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Racial balance in public schools.

Hello again, I'm Arunalny, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues, Americans care about most.

39 years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, America is still arguing about how to achieve

racial equality. More than a half century after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation,

the current court is divided over what that means. On to the point, does the Constitution require that government be color-blind,

or does equal opportunity mandate that race be a factor in school admissions?

What's happened in California, Washington State, and Michigan,

when they have outlawed affirmative action?

On reporter's notebook later on, nonviolviolence and the legacy of Dr. King.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John

D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

Foundation. Hello again. Mormon Alney, back with To the Point. Dr. Martin Luther King's goal of

equal opportunity is still controversial in 21st century America. On To the Point, are race preferences

necessary to achieve integration or unconstitutional? We'll look at pending Supreme Court cases that could

mean the end of affirmative action. On reporter's notebook, how Dr. King made nonviolence a powerful

form of protest. First, this news update in Iraq today, another grisly execution. The government

says all legal requirements were adhered to, but the head of Saddam Hussein's half

brother was accidentally severed from his body when he was hanged for the same crimes as Saddam Hussein.

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