WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Department of Justice ended a decades-old school segregation order in Louisiana Tuesday, calling its existence a "historical wrong."

The 1966 legal agreement with Plaquemines Parish schools ended after being overlooked for half a century, according to the DOJ.

In 1975, the court found the schools had been properly integrated, but the case was never removed from the court system, a release explained.

No longer will the Plaquemines Parish School Board have to devote precious local resources over an integration issue that ended two generations ago,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said. “This is a prime example of neglect by past administrations, and we’re now getting America refocused on our bright future.

Dozens of school districts across the South remain under court-enforced agreements dictating steps to work toward integration, decades after the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in education. Some see the court orders' endurance as a sign the government never eradicated segregation, while officials in Louisiana and at some schools see the orders as bygone relics that should be wiped away.

The Justice Department opened a wave of cases in the 1960s, after Congress unleashed the department to go after schools that resisted desegregation. Known as consent decrees, the orders can be lifted when districts prove they have eliminated segregation and its legacy.

Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.