The population data already revealed that white people dominated New Orleans between 1950 and 1960. By 1970, the gap had greatly diminished, and the white population had shrunk. In addition, the Black population steadily increased with each census. Despite this, the earliest records indicated that Black student enrollment dominated public schools as early as 1956. Before 1956, the number of Black and white students enrolled in public schools was similar.

1950 saw approximately twenty-nine thousand Black students enrolled in public school. Only thirty-six schools were available to accommodate these students. In comparison, around thirty-one thousand white students were also enrolled in public schools. These students had access to eighty-three schools, more than double the option of Black students. There were forty-seven more available white public schools for a difference of about two thousand students. Black student enrollment increases following 1956 saw a large gap between Black and white student enrollment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. However, the number of available schools did not reflect this. In 1964, the Black population had around twenty-one thousand more students enrolled in public schools than the white population. While the number of Black schools increased, only fifty-eight public schools were available for Black students. White students, down by that twenty-one thousand students, had one-hundred and six available schools to pick from. White public schools still maintained almost twice as many schools as Black schools despite the Black student population being higher.

The gap between Black and white schools did not shrink over this period. The NAACP presented this argument in their case for educational inequalities for Black and white children of New Orleans in the early 1950s. Despite the increase in Black student enrollment and subsequent decline of white enrollment in public schools, these numbers were not adequately addressed when ensuring Black children had equal access to education. As more Black children were enrolled, they would fill the limited number of classrooms, leading to overcrowding and teacher difficulties in accommodating individual educational needs.