Transformative Desegregation: Liberating Hearts and Minds

Abstract

This article is the last in a trilogy discussing the importance of maintaining a distinct, yet integrated, identity for African-Americans in public higher education. The first two articles establish that the Supreme Court mandate of equal educational opportunity for African-Americans, created in Brown v. Board of Education, and reaffirmed in United States v. Fordice, can be achieved in higher education by maintaining historically black colleges and universities as distinct institutions, while continuing the press for integration of predominantly white colleges and universities. This article also focuses on the need to remain race-conscious in remediating the present effects of past discrimination. My hope is to move us away from explaining desegregation solely as the court-ordered process of integrating people physically. The concept of desegregation also has the potential to transform the way we think about race so that our society will be more receptive to creating the racially non-hierarchical pluralistic society that America must become.