Cover image for Integrated : how American schools failed Black children
Title:
Integrated : how American schools failed Black children
Edition:
First edition.
Publication Date:
2025
Publication Information:
New York : Pantheon Books, 2025.

©2025
Physical Description:
220 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN:
9780553387391

9780593470756
Abstract:
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.
Language:
English
Holds: