The six studies collected in this book analyze the day-to-day realities of life in desegregated classrooms. The sites reported on range from New York to Memphis, and from the industrial Northeast to the Midwest and Deep South. They also vary by organization (elementary, middle, and high school), by the black-white ratio among students and faculty,…

The basic thesis of this book is that neither minorities nor whites benefit when incremental and participatory methods are used to desegregate schools. Rather, it argues, school desegregation can succeed only when rapid and extensive change is imposed by nonelected officials, at a centralized level, and without citizen involvement. Chapter 1…

This book concentrates on the experiences, personal insights, and big events that made up the battle to desegregate the public schools in Boston, Massachusetts. It also gives the historical background of the struggle. In 1965, Massachusetts passed the first state law against de facto segregation, the Racial Imbalance Act. It was not enforced. On…

This book chronicles African American higher education as viewed by 20 presidents and presidents emeriti from several historically black colleges (HBCs). Interview excerpts are used to illustrate how HBCs outside the established, accepted educational structure have been inadequately financed and staffed, have been without satisfactory resources,…

This study originated in 1968, when desegregation was being carried out mainly on a one-way basis, by busing minority pupils to predominantly white schools. Two of the districts studied, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Providence, Rhode Island, were then groping their way toward racial balance, primarily because of local pressures, and both had…

The history of Thomas Jefferson High School, Richmond (Virginia), is traced from its opening in 1930 through the city's social changes. The school developed a culture of academic excellence that it struggled to defend against decades of challenges such as desegregation, white flight, leadership changes, and budget cuts. The history of the school…

This book contains a full discussion on the new private schools established in the South in the wake of integration orders. These schools are known as segregationist academies. The book is divided into two parts. Each was done separately and by a different author. The first part presents a qualitative report designed to present a clear and graphic…

Western Regional School Desegregation Projects, University of California at Riverside, along with Community Resources Limited, designed and conducted a program to advance our information, knowledge, and ability to plan school desegregation processes. Its purpose was to help narrow the time lag between local politically or court-mandated…

This book describes the day-to-day life of students, teachers, administrators and parents in an affluent white school located in Portland, Oregon. It gives an account of the first year of racial integration in the school, 1973-1974, when about thirty students from the black community were bused to and from the school. To describe the process of…

The multicultural education statement of the Multicultural Education Commission of the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), "No One Model American," provides an impetus for much of the discussion in this selection of essays. The Brown I and Brown II court decisions escalated concerns as to how one person interacts with…

The history of the public schooling of African Americans during legalized segregation has focused almost exclusively on the inferior education that African American students received. In the national memory, African Americans have been victims of Whites who questioned the utility of providing Blacks with anything more than a rudimentary education…

This study asks and answers basic questions about the experience of blacks at predominantly white colleges. The data presented here comes from 979 face-to-face interviews conducted by young, college-educated black employees of the Educational Policy Center. These interviews, lasting approximately 45 minutes each, were conducted at 40 colleges and…

Spread between Brazil and Venezuela, the Yanomami occupy a dense forest region on the borders of Guyana, the northern parts divided up by grassy savanna. The Parima plain which forms the frontier between Brazil and Venezuela constitutes both the geographic centre and the place of origin of today's communities. The linguistic affiliation of these…

This description of the accomplishments and shortcomings of one school desegregation plan provides insights into much broader dialogue on the role of race in America. St. Louis (Missouri) and its suburbs demographically resemble many midsized contemporary metropolitan areas in the United States. What makes St. Louis unique is an urban-suburban…

School desegregation strategies are examined in political contexts to focus on the politics of quality schooling for African Americans. Through this approach, racialized uses of power in white self-interest are shown to influence policy making and policy implementation related to education. Essays include: (1) "Reclaiming Historical Visions…