Integrated : how American schools failed Black children / Noliwe Rooks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rooks, Noliwe, 1963- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

School integration--United States--History.

School integration.

Educational equalization--United States--History.

Educational equalization.

African American children--Education--History.

African American children.

African Americans--Social conditions.

African Americans.

Equality--United States--History.

Equality.

Physical Description:

220 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Pantheon Books, 2025.

Summary:

"A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author's family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice"-- Provided by publisher.

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.

Contents:

Introduction: Hope and ruin

"It is through our children we will be free."

The road to segregation

Black teachers matter

"We, too, had great expectations. And then we went to school."

Undereducated and overpoliced

Jelani

College access and community schools.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-208) and index.

ISBN:

9780553387391

0553387391

OCLC:

1442327873

Publisher Number:

90101694824