This study examines North Carolina's past educational politics from the desegregation era as a means to better contextualize its modern-day school pushout crisis. It marks desegregation as the bedrock for racialized school pushout as white resistance to integration proved difficult and at times dangerous for Black students as they entered formerly all-white educational spaces. As modern Black students are continually suspended from schools at racially disproportionate rates, the study seeks to gain a better understanding of the social and political context that allows for the racial disparities to persist. The study pinpoints Black North Carolinians' struggle for voting rights crucial for analysis as it can be correlated with the struggle to keep Black students in schools, as concurrent a form of racialized disenfranchisement. With North Carolina at the center of major legal battles concerning voting rights at the time of this writing, this study examines modern-day advocacy and takes a look back to advocacy prior to the Voting Rights of 1965. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]