Review of Both Sides Now: The Story of School Desegregation's Graduates. Amy Stuart Wells, Jennifer Jellison Holme, Anita Revilla, and Awo Korantemaa Ayamda. Reviewed by Kala Chakradher (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Hidden Injuries of School Desegregation
The 1954 Supreme Court ruling against the applicability of the "separate but equal" doctrine in the public school system in Brown v.s. Board of Education of Topeka augured the dawning of the Civil Rights Movement in 20 th century America. This decision sparked a major transformation in the nation's educational system-school desegregation-a process that in some cases took decades to come to fruition. Much has been written about the social and economic outcomes that have resulted from this landmark decision, however, research on the psychosocial consequences of school desegregation on the generation of African Americans who experienced this process is sparse. Employing a cultural trauma theoretical framework, this study takes up the latter issue by analyzing the ways in which the dislocation of the "colored school" system affected the social structures of the African American community and the collective identity of the children of integration. I analyzes this phenomenon in a local context by using oral history interview data collected on a cohort of African Americans who matriculated through the "colored school" system in Harlan County, Kentucky. The school systems in these communities desegregated between 1960 and 1963, and share similar cultural, regional, and political contexts. The primary questions guiding this research are (1) How did this generation of African Americans understand their racialized subjectivity prior to school desegregation? (2) What was the localized experience with school desegregation for this cohort of African Americans? and (3) What impact did school desegregation have on the collective identity of the children who experienced integration?
Teachers College Record, 2008
ing to students while they are still in school and their immediate academic outcomes, the growing body of research on the long-term effects of attending racially diverse schools on adult graduates is powerful and significant and, thus, should play a central role in public debates about the future of racial integration in American schools following the Court's ruling in these cases, referred to as Parents Involved. Taken together, findings from this research on the long-term effects of school desegregation speak to both of the central themes to emerge from the larger body of research on racial integration within public schools or universities: 1. the "legacies of structural inequality" theme, which addresses the need for race-conscious policies to overcome decades of perpetuated racial inequality and 2 the "diversity rationale," which focuses on preparing young people for a diverse society. The new interview data from Louisville and Seattle confirm these prior findings and add new insights.
Re-analysis of the Legal Landscape of Desegregation
This article re-examines the legal, political, and social history of school desegregation from the Plessy v. Ferguson 1 decision of 1896 through the most recent 2007 Supreme Court ruling in the Seattle and Louisville desegregation challenges. 2 We first consider the initial legal rationale and justification for school desegregation that was presented to the Supreme Court in 1954, and look at how rationale shaped its historic Brown I decision. 3 Following a critical look at the desegregation experience from Brown I and Brown II 4 to the turn of the twenty-first century, we consider how the Connecticut Supreme Court case of Sheff v. O'Neill 5 set the stage for radical change in the direction of future desegregation litigation. We also
School Desegregation From Brown to Fordice, 1954-1992: A Case Study in American Individualism
1998
In United States v. Fordice (1992), the Supreme Court Court declared that racially nondiscriminatory admissions and hiring policies alone failed to satisfy the state of Mississippi's "affirmative duty" to dismantle a previously de jure system of segregated higher education. However, the justices declined to define precisely what the state must do to satisfy its constitutional obligations, leaving in its wake a host of unresolved questions. Of particular concern to many African Americans is the fact that the future status of public black universities was left in the balance. Using a case study approach, this dissertation argues that higher education desegregation cannot be understood apart from the Brown decision and the larger struggle of African Americans to achieve the full rights of American citizenship. It was found that: (1) though African Americans have a unique history of slavery and racial segregation, they have adhered to, and used, the same principles from th...
Complex Legacy of School Desegregation Mixed Feelings About Mixed Schools: Superintendents on the
Purpose: This article considers the perspectives of superintendents who atten ded all-Black segregated schools and examines how their lived experiences infor med their views on desegregation policy, programs, and practices. Research Design: This empirical, qualitative study used critical race theory as a methodological and analytical framework for collecting and interpreting participant narratives acquired through in-depth, semistructured interviews and autobiographical and biographical documents and artifacts. Findings: Study findings are presented as counterstories to (a) the inferior all-Black school, (b) equal education, access, and opportunity, and (c) integration, diversity, and inclusion, with imp lications for the perceived viability of school desegregation in the post-Brown era. Collectively, they reflect what one participant described as "mixed feelings" about school desegregation. Conclusions: The article concludes with implications for educational policy and practice to include support for racial literacy in educational leadership and policy and recommendations for promoting a proper education no matter the school context, separate or mixed.
Blacks and "Brown": The Effects of School Desegregation on Black Students
This paper analyzes 19 studies that were considered by the National Institute of Education's panel on the effects of school desegregation in order to determine desegregation's effect on black achievement, black self-esteem, and racial relations. It is stated that, overall, the results show that reading achievement improves somewhat as a result of desegregation but math achievement does not. The author notes that there is a basic problem in evaluating desegregation programs in that there is great diversity among programs, which accounts for the diverse results obtained in different studies. It is suggested that desegregation has not increased black self-esteem, and in some cases has decreased it; tentative conclusions suggest that racial relations have not been improved by desegregation. According to the author, research, and particularly long-term research, is still needed on the effects of desegregation on students and communities, as well as studies that examine under what...
The Crucible of Desegregation: The Uncertain Search for Educational Equality -review
LSE Blog, 2023
In The Crucible of Desegregation: The Uncertain Search for Educational Equality, R. Shep Melnick examines the evolution of federal school desegregation policy in the US from 1954 through the termination of desegregation orders in the first decades of the 21st century. Combining legal analysis with a focus on institutional relations, Melnick’s analysis of the difficulty of defining and implementing desegregation is a valuable contribution to the fields of law, history, and educational studies, writes Pabitra Saha.