Abstract

The Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD) avoided federal oversight to comply with the desegregation ruling for nearly 30 years after Brown v. Board of Education by establishing a neighborhood concept for school attendance boundaries. Jenkins v. Missouri ended in 1995 with a U.S. Supreme Court decision to desegregate schools in this district. Our research project used BlackCrit and oral history to examine the experiences of 15 participants, who were educators, students, parents, and community members that formed the legacy of school desegregation. Their counter stories shed critical light on how they continue to grapple with persistent inequalities in today’s schools. Themes from their stories resonated with vivid accounts of the desegregation plan that guided their educational experiences; the community’s reactions to desegregation; views about integration; dangerous memories of institutional racism and antiblackness; and lessons from a contested field. Significantly, our participants’ local stories have the potential to invigorate efforts for Black liberation.

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