In 1996, Dr. Timuel D. Black collected and archived 36 oral histories with alumni and current students and staff from DuSable and Phillips high schools, Chicago's first two all-Black high schools. Several of those interviews were with alumni who returned to their alma mater as teachers. In this study, I drew on analyses of the interview…

Current research on African American education is saturated with studies on school failure (Collins 2003; Glasser 1969; Irvine 1990; Kozol 2005; MacLeod 1995; Neckerman 2007; Walker and Sprague 1999), rather than investigations that address the processes that "mediate" failure and create success (Bell 2001; Chenoweth 2007, 2009;…

Providing a brief history of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)--including how and why they were founded, funding sources and needs over time, and an examination of mission statements--the author considers the relevance of HBCUs in the current twenty-first century context. He makes an argument that the educational opportunities…

In this article we provide a brief history of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as a part of the sociopolitical context framing this special issue. The aim of this issue is to situate HBCUs as centers of leadership, change, and influence as well as repositories of Black education and the Black American experience through their…

For most Americans, access to a quality education has always been perceived as the fundamental link to upward mobility and increased life chances within our society (Ballantine and Hammack in "The sociology of education: a systematic analysis." Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2011; Brown et al. 2010; Holyfield 2002). This perception…

This qualitative study takes account of the salience of activism in informing the worldviews and professional practices of a multigenerational sample of 42 African American educators in Birmingham, Alabama. Framed by life course, Black feminist thought, and hip-hop educational research perspectives, the study highlights how the participants…

In this paper, the author challenges stakeholders (i.e., administrators, educators, students) of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to examine how HBCUs can continue to serve as sites of resistance against the prevailing cultural norms of materialism, Western masculinity, and spiritual malefaction. The author traces his…

This article explains how Jim Crow's teachers--former teachers of legally segregated schools for blacks--prepared and motivated disadvantaged students in spite of funding and resource deprivation. According to the author, black teachers fashioned situated pedagogies for the acquisition of educational capital that could be used in exchange for…

The negative consequences of school desegregation on Black families, educators, and communities in the US are well documented in education research today. The purpose of this article is to examine the experiential knowledge and wisdom of practice of former Black school superintendents who attended all Black segregated schools and led desegregated…

After more than 15 years of comparative study of minority education, I concluded that I would have to study two additional factors, namely collective identity and cultural frame of reference to more fully explain the variability in minority school performance. In 1986, I published an article with Signithia Fordham on how "oppositional…

From a life course perspective, this article examines how an intergenerational sample of 20 African-American women in Chicago describe and make meaning out of their struggles and advancements to make inroads into the principalship. Being born on opposite sides of the Civil Rights Movement distinguishes markedly how these women perceive their…

Public schools have increasing numbers of its teachers fitting into one demographic, white and female, while the numbers of African American teachers decrease (Ladson-Billings, "Crossing over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms". San Francisco: Josey-Bass" [2001]). Furthermore, African American collegiates…