Just trying to have school : the struggle for desegregation in Mississippi / Natalie G. Adams and James H. Adams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adams, Natalie G., author.

Adams, James Harold, 1955- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

School integration--Mississippi--History.

School integration.

Educational equalization--Mississippi--History.

Educational equalization.

Discrimination in education--Mississippi--History.

Discrimination in education.

School integration--Massive resistance movement--Mississippi--History.

African Americans--Education--Mississippi--History.

African Americans.

African Americans--Education.

School integration--Massive resistance movement.

History.

Mississippi.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 299 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2018.

Summary:

"After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, no state fought longer or harder to preserve segregated schools than Mississippi. This massive resistance came to a crashing halt in October 1969 when the Supreme Court ruled in Alexander v. Holmes Board of Education that "the obligation of every school district is to terminate dual school systems at once and to operate now and hereafter only unitary schools." Thirty of the thirty-three Mississippi districts named in the case were ordered to open as desegregated schools after Christmas break. With little guidance from state officials and no formal training or experience in effective school desegregation processes, ordinary people were thrown into extraordinary circumstances. However, their stories have been largely ignored in desegregation literature. Based on meticulous archival research and oral history interviews with over one hundred parents, teachers, students, principals, superintendents, community leaders, and school board members, Natalie G. Adams and James H. Adams explore the arduous and complex task of implementing school desegregation. How were bus routes determined? Who lost their position as principal? Who was assigned to what classes? Without losing sight of the important macro forces in precipitating social change, the authors shift attention to how the daily work of "just trying to have school" helped shape the contours of school desegregation in communities still living with the decisions made fifty years ago."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The daily work of doing Brown

With no deliberate speed: the road from Brown to Alexander

"A cruel and intolerable burden": black Mississippians and freedom of choice

Big bulls in the local herd: superintendents enforcing the law of the land

Weathering the storm: principals and local implementation

Love, hope, and fear: teachers guiding desegregation

"We all came together on the football field," but . . .: the role of sports in desegregation

"We never had a prom": social integration and the extracurricular

"Hell no, we won't go": protest and resistance to school desegregation

Resistance through exodus: private schools as a countermovement

Unfinished business: lessons learned through school desegregation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Adams, Natalie G. Just trying to have school.

ISBN:

9781496819536

1496819535

9781496819543

1496819543

OCLC:

1038028052