1 of 1 copy available
On May 17, 1954 the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Heralded as a massive victory for civil rights, the decision's goal was to give Black children equitable access to educational opportunities and clear a path to a better future. Yet in the years following the ruling, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods were shuttered or saw their funding dwindle, Black educators were fired en masse, and Black children faced discrimination and violence from their white peers as they joined resource-rich schools that were ill-prepared for the influx of new students.
Award-winning interdisciplinary scholar of education and Black history Noliwe Rooks weaves together sociological data and cultural history to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. She tells the story of her grandparents, who were among the thousands of Black teachers fired following the Brown decision; her father, who was traumatized by his experiences at an almost exclusively-white school; her own experiences moving from a flourishing, racially diverse school to an underserved inner-city one; and finally her son and his Black peers, who over half-century after Brown still struggle with hostility and prejudice from white teachers and students alike. She also shows how present-day discrimination lawsuits directly stem from the mistakes made during integration.
At once assiduously researched and deeply engaging, Integrated tells the story of how education has remained both a tool for community progress and a seemingly inscrutable cultural puzzle. Rooks' deft hand turns the story of integration's past and future on it's head, and shows how we may better understand and support generations of students to come.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
March 18, 2025 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780553387407
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780553387407
- File size: 1877 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
October 1, 2024
Rooks, the chair and L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, writes a nuanced history of school desegregation by tracing four generations of her own family history and suggesting a path for better experiences for future students. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2024 Library Journal
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-
February 1, 2025
Far from the dream of educational equality. Rooks eloquently begins: "I believe a morning will come when we as a nation will collectively toast our wrestled defeat of inequitable education....Before that future can find us, we who believe that educational equality is a requirement for healthy democracy will need to fully acknowledge the failure of the dream of shared access to resources and institution governance that was to have been complete integration." The book charts the history of that failure, from the founding of the republic to the present day. It offers individual stories of segregation and--after theBrown v. Board of Education decision outlawing segregation in public schools--resistance to integration. These historical narratives intertwine with personal accounts of the author's own family during these times. Taken together, they create a vivid account of the emotional and economic damage done to generations of children of color. They sustain the position that systemic racism, rather than individually focused discrimination, often motivates institutional inequality. But, in the end, this is a book of people rather than laws and institutions. It shows that Black families were not, in fact, unanimous in their support of theBrown decision; there was dissent and disagreement about how best to serve communities and allocate resources. While the author does not support a pre-Brown world, she does celebrate the older, Black structures of belonging--the church, the school, and the community. The goal of this book is, as the author concludes, to "find another way" beyond our present systems to make education available with equal resources and equal impact to children of all socioeconomic and ethnic groups in America. Rich with statistics and historical narrative, the book comes fully alive when the author writes about her son's struggles as a Black child in an exclusive white school system and about her challenges as a Black professor in the Ivy League. A powerful and uncompromising indictment of the public school system.COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-