In this article, I describe the process that five graduate students used to collect oral histories about racial desegregation in a community in southern Illinois. Using these stories, I and a project team developed a unique online learning environment that facilitates and assesses the user's abilities to engage in historical thinking as a means…

In this paper we argue that although the United States and South Africa have produced qualitatively different national frames about the necessity for racial integration in education, certain practices converge in both nations at the school level that thwart integrationist goals. Drawing on sociologist Jeannie Oakes and colleagues' idea of schools…

The racial desegregation of the student bodies of historically white universities in South Africa has had significant political implications for student politics and university governance. I discuss two key moments in the governance history of the University of Cape Town (UCT) critically. The first involves the experience of racial parallelism in…

An executive summary of findings, this is the first volume of the Third Monitoring Report on Boston Public School Desegregation. The report, covering Boston Public Schools operations from December 1983 through May 1984, was filed by the Massachusetts Board of Education and Commissioner of Education under Orders of Disengagement entered at Federal…

The future of private Black colleges depends on public and private financial support to enable them to carry out their missions and establish programs of quality. The question should not be whether private Black colleges are needed, but whether the college is of such quality that it deserves support. (MLW)

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,…

Explores public school desegregation and the consequences of a "facilities" emphasis on children. The author illustrates this issue through personal observations and comments from two black teachers regarding the cultural and social psychological effects of forced public school integration. These observations reveal that the benefits of…

After two decades of court supervision, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the DeKalb County (Georgia) Schools were largely desegregated. In this article, the district superintendent describes the debilitating effects of court-supervised desegregation on himself and the school district. True integration cannot be achieved involuntarily. A…

In the 1950's, Charles S. Johnson, the first black president of Fisk University (Tennessee), greatly expanded the institution's international program, attracting many foreign students to the school and creating a milieu that gave American blacks the benefits of integration. This paper examines how the presence of outsiders and outside influences…

Examines the experience of one school in South Africa that has not only desegregated its intake but has also attempted to democratize its management structures in order to teach democratic values through experience and in particular to foster a climate of mutual respect among students so as to decrease racial distrust. Contains 8 references. (VWC)

Discusses the Brown versus Board of Education decision, evaluates the influence of social science data on court decisions, and reconstructs race and educational achievement in the United States. Special emphasis is placed on comments of Supreme Court Justice Thomas and the future of the relationship between blacks and education into the new…

This part of the Third Monitoring Report on the progress of desegregation in the Boston Public Schools covers activities for the period from December 1983 through May 1984. First, the Boston School Superintendent's response is presented to challenges made after previous reports showed little progress in staffing, facilities, bilingual education,…

During the 1972-73 academic year, a research team working out of Teachers College, Columbia University, conducted case studies in districts where comprehensive and effective desegregation processes had been implemented. Greenburgh Central No. Seven, Greenburgh, New York, was selected as a site which had provided evidence of practices and policies…

The requirement to desegregate schools catalyzed changes enhancing educational effectiveness at Norfolk Public Schools (Virginia). Diversification of curriculum, high expectations, and instructional leadership have brought about dramatic improvements in academic achievement and minimal competency, and a significant decrease in racial disparity.…

Explores the legacies of desegregation in cities that have a predominantly black municipal leadership. Focuses on policies in the District of Columbia and discovers a pattern relevant to similar cities. That pattern includes a tendency to isolate education issues from other municipal concerns and a reluctance to involve the courts. (MJP)