Brown Decision Research Articles

Just and Righteous Causes: Rabbi Ira Sanders and the Fight for Racial and Social Justice in Arkansas, 1926–1963 by James L. Moses

Reviewed by: Just and Righteous Causes: Rabbi Ira Sanders and the Fight for Racial and Social Justice in Arkansas, 1926–1963 by James L. Moses Mary Stanton Just and Righteous Causes: Rabbi Ira Sanders and the Fight for Racial and Social Justice in Arkansas, 1926–1963. By James L. Moses. Arkansas History. (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2018. Pp. xii, 219. $34.95, ISBN 978-1-68226-075-3.) With Just and Righteous Causes: Rabbi Ira Sanders and the Fight for Racial and Social Justice in Arkansas, 1926–1963, James L. Moses makes a welcome contribution to the study of mid-twentieth-century southern rabbis who walked a tightrope between discharging their duties as spiritual leaders and responding to wider social justice concerns. Motivated to write this book by Rabbi Ira Sanders’s “curious absence in the extant literature,” Moses makes the case that Sanders belongs in the company of more renowned rabbis, such as Charles Mantinband of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Morris Newfield of Birmingham, Alabama, and Jacob Rothschild of Atlanta, Georgia (p. 6). All knew that they might trigger their neighbors’ hostility with statements, judgments, or actions that countered the tenets of the segregated southern way of life. Repercussions could range from the boycott of Jewish businesses, to the withdrawal of Jews’ “white standing,” and even to violence. Rabbis with activist inclinations had much to consider. Sanders was raised in Missouri and arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1926 to lead Congregation B’nai Israel. Thirty years before Brown v. Board of Education (1954), he was already a consistent voice for integration. Sanders was active in the NAACP and a cofounder of the Little Rock Urban League. The 1957 integration of Little Rock’s Central High School was one of his finest hours. On February 18, 1957, Rabbi Sanders addressed a public hearing of state senators preparing to vote on four proposals designed to evade the Brown decision’s desegregation order. He was the only Jewish speaker that evening. The first bill proposed a watchdog state sovereignty commission to resist federal encroachment. A second bill permitted parents to refuse to send their children to integrated schools. Another set aside funds for school districts that opposed integration orders. The last required subversive organizations (predominantly the NAACP) to register with the state and turn over their membership lists. Sanders argued that these statutes could not withstand the test of time, since moral law would eventually supersede civil law in all cases. He recalled Jesus on the cross when he quoted the words, “‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do,’” and he warned, “May future generations . . . NOT be compelled to say these words of you!” (p. 132). He was consequently ushered out of the building for his own safety; all four bills were passed. Yet when B’nai Israel’s building was threatened, Rabbi Sanders did not back down, and his congregation supported him. Moses’s short but valuable tribute to Rabbi Sanders is well researched and well written, yet it leaves us wanting more. Despite the disclaimer that this biography covers only Sanders’s political activism in Arkansas, it would benefit from some reflection on the rabbi’s internal struggles. What experiences helped forge the character of this man who became capable of defending a position so dangerous that most of his colleagues could not or would not do the same? As far as possible, it might have been helpful to [End Page 945] consider the roots of his courage, how it was sustained, and what its internal costs were. Mary Stanton New York, New York Copyright © 2019 The Southern Historical Association

Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional? by Mark Golub

Reviewed by: Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional? by Mark Golub Steven White Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional?. By Mark Golub. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xviii, 210. $65.00, ISBN 978-0-19-068360-3.) This book intervenes in the legal debate between advocates of a “colorblind Constitution” and their critics by arguing for a rejection of certain [End Page 936] shared premises (p. x). In Mark Golub’s analysis, the conservative judicial project of colorblindness actually advocates for a particular type of racial consciousness: the protection of white rights against a range of proposed remedies for addressing persistent racial inequities. By accepting the framing preferred by color-blind constitutionalists, Golub argues, their critics neglect the “peculiar form of race-consciousness that is produced through demands for nonconsideration of race” (p. 167). To make his argument, Golub traces the notion of colorblindness through detailed examinations of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954), before he discusses how conservative jurists used color-blind rhetoric in the late twentieth century to articulate a politically powerful defense against further efforts to combat lingering racial injustices that continue to the present day. Golub’s primary contribution is theoretical rather than historical, but he uses historical scholarship to illustrate his theoretical argument. To connect his historical analysis to contemporary debates about the limits of the legal system for addressing racial injustice, Golub emphasizes the influence of white southern moderates in the aftermath of Brown. Their response to Brown, Golub argues, helped create a color-blind constitutionalist template designed to simultaneously oppose meaningful federal intervention into racial inequities while maintaining a rhetorical attack on Jim Crow discrimination. As Golub writes, white moderates “set the terms for an emergent national racial compromise reducible neither to the egalitarian demands of the civil rights movement, nor to the preservation of Jim Crow–era racial caste” (p. 102). The model of color-blind constitutionalism that emerged from moderate responses to the Brown decision is not simply skeptical of color consciousness, as is often claimed. Rather, by equating white racism with the extremity of Jim Crow, color-blind constitutionalists are able to offer rhetorical support for racial equality while treating contemporary forms of racial discrimination as though they lay beyond the scope of proper redress. Golub traces this rhetoric from early rumblings (for example, Justice William Rehnquist’s dissent in Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver Colorado [1973]) to more recent cases, like Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007), where conservative jurists succeeded in limiting the capacity of a policy intervention to achieve school desegregation. Some legal scholars might feel that Golub is picky at times (in describing work he is generally sympathetic to, he often notes that it “concedes too much” or “fails to appreciate” the particular interpretation he advocates [pp. 147, 80]). For historians, some of the narrative will seem familiar, as Golub relies on secondary sources for his historical analysis. On the whole, though, Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional? concisely ties together legal and historical scholarship to produce a clear intervention into a major debate in contemporary American politics. In doing so, it raises compelling (and disconcerting) questions about whether substantive racial equality is possible under the constraints of American constitutionalism. [End Page 937] Steven White Syracuse University Copyright © 2019 The Southern Historical Association

A Historical and Political Look at the Modern School Choice Movement

School choice in the United States can be traced back to the start of civil society when wealthy families selected a school based on educational philosophy, location, or religious tradition. As common schools emerged, larger portions of the population were able to gain access to education. However, many discovered that quality public schools were not a reality for all students. In response, some looked to school choices within and outside of the public school sector. This literature review chronicles school choice efforts to emerge following the 1954 Brown decision and highlights liberal and conservative political heritages of school choice in the United States.

Hazel Brannon Smith: The Female Crusading Scalawag by Jeffery B. Howell

Reviewed by: Hazel Brannon Smith: The Female Crusading Scalawag by Jeffery B. Howell Erin K. Devlin Hazel Brannon Smith: The Female Crusading Scalawag. By Jeffery B. Howell. ( Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017. Pp. viii, 245. $35.00, ISBN 978-1-4968-1079-3.) Hazel Brannon Smith: The Female Crusading Scalawag is a biography of Hazel Brannon Smith, a white newspaper editor in Holmes County, Mississippi, who earned national acclaim as one of the first women to win a Pulitzer Prize as a result of her editorial positions during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Jeffery B. Howell chronicles the entirety of Smith's career, tracing the evolution of her views on southern race relations and her consistent commitment to freedom of speech and law and order. Howell contends that Smith's early career laid the groundwork for her fight against the White Citizens' Council in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In the 1940s Smith consistently denounced lawlessness in her campaign against bootleg liquor. She viewed the actions of the Citizens' Council to maintain segregation through intimidation, violence, and economic retaliation as another expression of reckless disregard for the rule of law that threatened not only the civil rights of African Americans but also the civil liberties of white southern moderates like herself. Howell suggests that these concerns, rather than a liberal critique of Jim Crow, drove Smith to speak out against the Citizens' Council. During the first two decades of her career, "she ardently supported segregation" (p. 4). Although she decried overt violence and called for the equalization of public services, Smith believed that white and black southerners alike preferred racial separation. In her editorials in the late 1950s, Smith supported the state's legislative efforts to circumvent the implementation of the Brown decision and even applauded the establishment of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. [End Page 216] However, Smith alienated the white establishment when she spoke out against the Citizens' Council's tactics. The Citizens' Council sought to put Smith out of business by calling on advertisers to boycott her papers and by establishing a rival publication. The once popular editor became a social pariah, and she bridled at the Citizens' Council's efforts to quash her editorial voice. Rather than being intimidated, Smith took a more progressive stand in the early 1960s by calling for the repeal of Jim Crow segregation statutes and printing copies of NAACP publications like the Mississippi Free Press. Howell demonstrates how out of step Smith was with white public opinion by comparing her editorials and columns with those run by her competitors at the Lexington (Mississippi) Holmes County Herald, the Jackson Daily News, and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. However, it would have been useful to analyze Smith's writing alongside the perspectives promoted by the black press. Smith maintained that abolishing formal segregation statutes would not overthrow "local customs and traditions" and opined that de facto segregation would continue to preserve most facets of the so-called southern way of life (p. 135). Howell describes Smith as an ally of the civil rights movement who helped facilitate racial change in Mississippi and was called an integrationist, yet he notes that Smith never described herself as such. Howell maintains that the label was less important than Smith's calls for "equal justice, fair treatment, freedom of expression and association, and racial harmony," and he suggests that she must have understood that "freedoms" could not exist "without some measure of societal integration," despite her own statements to the contrary (pp. 136, 160). Ultimately, Howell's portrait of Hazel Brannon Smith reveals both the editor's important contributions and the limitations of white southern moderation in the twentieth century. Erin K. Devlin University of Mary Washington Copyright © 2018 The Southern Historical Association

Segregation, Desegregation, Segregation: Charter School Options as a Return to Separate and Unequal Schools for Urban Families

ABSTRACTThe controversial glory of the Brown decisions and the retraction of court-ordered reforms represent the limited gains of racial justice in education and the protection of white privilege through law and policy. The return to segregation, as propagated through the rise of racially and economically segregated charter schools, exhibits the circuitous nature of law and education policy, represents a return to unequal schooling, and reveals the enduring and meaningful connections between race, law, and education. Using the lens of critical race theory, this paper focuses on law as an instrument of racial justice and oppression in education during the era of school desegregation and the inevitable return to separate and unequal schools for African American students through new education policies that promote the proliferation of charter schools in large urban school districts.

The Integration Project Among White Teachers and Racial/Ethnic Minority Youth: Understanding Bias in School Practice

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled schools in the United States needed to desegregate and begin integration. The decision was a radical departure from the facilities argument initially presented; it added the issue that the segregation of Black students was having a deleterious effect on their self-concept. Many scholars argue the integration has not been sustained (Orfield and Frankenberg, 2014); in fact, a recent report highlights Black, Latino and Native American students are less integrated with White and Asian students than in 1954 (Orfield and Frankenberg, 2014). However the Brown decision set forth another integration project – the integration of White practitioners (i.e., teachers and principals) with Black, Latino and Native American student populations! This article brings together an array of social interaction research that articulates the complexity of this integration project. More specifically, the article focuses on demographic patterns of intimate interactions (i.e., friendship networks, interracial marriage), research studies that document race-based ideas of learning and achievement; the presence of “passive” lowered expectations occurring through interactions such as stereotype threat (Steele and Aronson, 1995) and racial/ethnic microaggressions (Wing Sue, 2010) and “active” lowered expectations through school structures such as curriculum (Anyon, 1983) and resource allocation (Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. NYS, 2003).

Brian J. Daugherity. Keep On Keeping On: The NAACP and the Implementation of Brown v. Board of Education in Virginia.

The 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, declaring that segregation in public education was unconstitutional, was the culmination of a twenty-year effort begun in the mid-1930s by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). But for all intents and purposes, the Brown decision did not mean an end to school segregation; throughout most of the South, the decision meant a declaration of war. In no southern state was the resistance to school desegregation more intense than in Virginia, the proud and acknowledged leader of the Confederacy a century earlier. In Keep On Keeping On: The NAACP and the Implementation of Brown v. Board of Education in Virginia, Brian J. Daugherity examines Virginia’s protracted resistance to school desegregation and the role that the state’s NAACP played in combating that resistance, a campaign that in the end would take another twenty years. Drawing upon a vast array of archival materials, newspapers, and court cases, and building upon the work of previous scholars, Daugherity argues convincingly that the close relationship between Virginia’s local NAACP leadership and the national office was crucial to whatever gains were made in the struggle to eliminate segregated schools in the state.

Dreaming and Doing at Georgia HBCUs: Continued Relevancy in ‘Post-Racial’ America

Since their inception 150 years ago, Georgia’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have provided African American students with the best mechanism, and for some, the only opportunity to receive a collegiate education. Justifications for and against the continued relevance of HBCUs in Georgia have been raised and argued since the Brown decision in 1954 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. More than 50 years after these monumental decisions Georgia’s HBCUs remain relatively segregated, with lower endowments, budgets, graduation rates and higher cohort default rates than the state’s Predominantly White Colleges and Universities (PWCU). In defiance of political tactics to close and merge them, and despite the confluence of lower average admission requirements, less funding for institutional scholarships, limited technological resources and smaller operating budgets, Georgia’s HBCUs have persevered in providing higher educational opportunities not only for African Americans, but for students of all races. This entry focuses on HBCUs in the State of Georgia and adds to the literature on their history, purpose, effectiveness and continued relevancy.

Dreaming and Doing at Georgia HBCUs: Continued Relevancy in ‘Post-Racial’ America

Since their inception 150 years ago, Georgia's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have provided African American students with the best mechanism, and for some, the only opportunity to receive a collegiate education. Justifications for and against the continued relevance of HBCUs in Georgia have been raised and argued since the Brown decision in 1954 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. More than 50 years after these monumental decisions Georgia's HBCUs remain relatively segregated, with lower endowments, budgets, graduation rates and higher cohort default rates than the state's Predominantly White Colleges and Universities (PWCU). In defiance of political tactics to close and merge them, and despite the confluence of lower average admission requirements, less funding for institutional scholarships, limited technological resources and smaller operating budgets, Georgia's HBCUs have persevered in providing higher educational opportunities not only for African Americans, but for students of all races. This entry focuses on HBCUs in the State of Georgia and adds to the literature on their history, purpose, effectiveness and continued relevancy.

<em>“Trust Me, You Are Going to College”: How Trust Influences Academic Achievement in Black Males</em>

IntroductionYoung Black males in America have traditionally been viewed as a high-risk population. A significant number of Black males drop out of high school, are (or have been) in the penal system, in gangs or have died a violent death much too young (Ferguson, 2001). Considerable amount of public discourse and literature has focused on Black boys through a lens of pathology or deficits (as debunked by Brown & Donnor, 2011; Ferguson, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Noguera, 2008). Correspondingly, much of the historical scholarship negatively concerning Black males in American education has permeated the public domain, research, and, perhaps most importantly, the perceptions of educators and Black males themselves. This article seeks to challenge the dominant narrative of negative academic characteristics of Black males, by adding to the expanding discourse focusing on positive Black male academic achievements.Since the landmark civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which ended the doctrine of separate but equal, public schools have been trying to resolve the issue of how to best educate Black students. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 helped codify the Brown decision in public schooling, but there were still pockets of resistance to Black students being integrated throughout the country, and not just in the South. In the 1970s and early 1980s in cities such as Boston and Philadelphia, bussing for integration became a mechanism for trying to achieve better educational outcomes for Black children (Fluehr-Lobban, 1990).In the past few decades, a significant shift has occurred in scholarship surrounding Black males from deficit models to scholarship focused on positive strength-based assets of Black male students (e.g., Darling-Hammond et al., 2007; Davis, 2003; Davis & Jordan, 1994; Fergus, Noguera & Martin, 2014; Giroux & Schmidt, 2004; Baldridge, Hill, & Davis, 2011; LadsonBillings, 2006; Noguera, 2008; Noguera & Wing, 2006). Darling-Hammond (2007), LadsonBillings (2006) and Noguera (2008) have articulated how notions of inferiority found in earlier literature focusing on the study of Black males in education fixated on students' deficiencies rather than their positive achievements. The prevailing belief is that deficit-based thinking has hampered policymakers, educators and in many ways, Black males themselves, into believing their deficits were too significant to overcome and most importantly said criticisms were accurate. Therefore, the belief is that a self-fulfilling prophecy helped reinforce in many young Black male students that there was little hope of attaining positive academic achievement.This article contributes to the growing shift in the literature toward more positive discourse surrounding Black males in general and positive academic achievement specifically by examining the experiences of high-achieving Black male participants and the factors that helped contribute to their acceptance and attendance in college. One of the ways young Black males counter the toxicity of negative influences and expectations was through persistence. Despite the fact that these young Black males have often had to navigate through a history of racial discrimination in this country, challenges in family structure, low income, and in many cases, extremely violent neighborhoods, communities and schools, they still experienced positive supports and maintained positive attitudes that allowed them to persist and realize positive academic achievement. Central to this persistence and positive attitude were specific types of trust. In order to create more positive educational outcomes, it is critical to examine why some young Black males succeed in the face of adversity while many of their peers do not.Literature ReviewAccording to a Forbes Magazine article from 2013, trust is the most important element in business and is the basis for strong relationships (Peshawaria, 2013). …

The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism by Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. Wiegand

Reviewed by: The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism by Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. Wiegand David S. Nolen The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism, by Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. Wiegand. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2018. 280 pp. $38.00. In May 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in the landmark case of Brown v Board of Education of Topeka. That ruling upended the legal concept often summed up as "separate but equal," which had undergirded laws establishing segregated public services and facilities—especially public schools—for decades. The Court's decision finally acknowledged the grim reality that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," and ushered in the era of integration of public schools and, eventually, other public facilities as well. In The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South, authors Wayne and Shirley Wiegand chronicle the desegregation of another facility intimately linked to American educational values: the public library. The authors set out to shine a light on the African Americans who made sacrifices on behalf of desegregation of public libraries across the South. Though various civil rights organizations were involved in desegregation efforts centered on public libraries, the authors focus specifically on the stories of the individual protestors—most of whom were teenagers or young adults—and their experiences in attempting to use public library facilities. The Wiegands begin the book with a helpful introduction that contextualizes the desegregation of public libraries within the context of the broader civil rights movement. The first full chapter sets the stage for the discussion of desegregation by describing the various ways African Americans in the South established their own libraries, or sought access to resources despite the limited library access afforded them because of Jim Crow laws and discriminatory social practices. The chapters that follow present a catalog of library desegregation efforts preceding the monumental Brown decision. The story continues into the six years immediately following the decision as legal challenges [End Page 378] to segregated library services sprang up across the South. These challenges to segregated public libraries formed an important (but often overlooked) part of the overall civil rights strategy, depending on the context of the local community. The authors add to this narrative in subsequent chapters by focusing on descriptions of the various attempts to desegregate public libraries—and the varying levels of resistance those efforts encountered—that occurred in specific towns and cities across the South after 1960. Those chapters focus on cities in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia, with overall assessments of desegregation and opposition in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The authors conclude the book with a brutally honest assessment of how the American Library Association, whose members were deeply divided over how or even if to respond to library integration efforts, proved to be a non-factor in the movement to desegregate southern public libraries. The authors' stated objective is to chronicle the efforts of young African Americans to desegregate public libraries across the South. The Wiegands' primary motivation in telling these stories is to identify those who worked long and hard and suffered much to bring attention to the lack of access to library resources for blacks and to remedy the situation. Regarding that stated objective, the Wiegands have succeeded mightily. The reader will be impressed and at times overwhelmed by the sheer number of documented library protests. Equally impressive is the number of local and nationally prominent activists who recognized the importance of the library as a shared public space that should provide equal access to citizens of the community, regardless of race. The authors have compiled a wealth of geographically diverse primary sources, relying heavily on court records, local newspapers, and African American newspapers for public commentary on the events relating to desegregation. The discovery and gathering of the sources included in the endnotes and bibliography make a significant contribution to the literature. The unique focus on the integration of public libraries adds many details that have not otherwise been covered in the larger story...

From Sword to Shield to Myth: Facing the Facts of De Facto School Segregation

During the legal battles that followed the 1954 Brown decision, the de jure-de facto binary became the key legal distinction used to define the limits of school desegregation. In recent years, historians have labeled de facto segregation as an evasive and misleading “myth.” However, the concept had a long political career before it became a subterfuge. In fact, civil rights activists first invented the concept in an attempt to force legal recognition of segregated schools outside of the South. But in an ironic turn of events, school officials, judges, lawmakers, journalists, and ordinary citizens later appropriated the phrase to deny responsibility for the color line. Thus, what began as an allegation of racial discrimination ultimately became an impenetrable defense of legal innocence. This article recovers the decade of fierce public debates surrounding northern school desegregation by tracing the evolution of de facto segregation from allegation to defense to myth.

Restoring the Promise of Brown: Using State Constitutional Law to Challenge School Segregation

Despite over six decades of litigation, both state and federal court strategies have largely failed to address inequalities and segregation in America’s schools. More than sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, our schools are still deeply unequal, and school segregation has generally been increasing over the past several decades. In both academic and social outcomes, students in these segregated schools lag far behind their peers. This article examines the viability of using state constitutional law to address school segregation. For more than forty years, state courts have played a major role and have had varied success in addressing issues of educational inequality under school finance and educational adequacy theories. A handful of cases have used state constitutional law to challenge school segregation, including a brand new case, Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota, which restarts the discussion on how best to restore the original promise of Brown.Federal courts long ago departed sharply from the initial promise of the Brown decision and have spent the last few decades undermining desegregation. While hailed as one of the Supreme Court’s greatest accomplishments, the iconic Brown decision has been largely dismantled. Yet the goals of Brown remain a priority. This article discusses how state constitutional claims can bring new life to the promise of Brown and address school segregation. Educational adequacy cases targeting school segregation in some respects are a combination of the best of federal and state courts. Such potential cases represent the next logical step in addressing inequality in our schools, combining the many advantages of state court litigation with the original promise of Brown.

Brown versus Board at 62: Marching back into the future

Sixty-two years after the Brown decision, American schools are collapsing under the weight of an antiquated system of school finance, pockets of poverty, and a ‘Black and Browning’ urban core. This article focuses on the march backwards to the de facto re-segregation of our nation’s public schools. In 2016, the racial and ethnic divides that plagued previous generations persist, but we have become less willing to talk earnestly about them and less equipped with responses that reach their core. Education is where we must start. The first step in producing quality schooling for all is to have candid discussions that link the inequalities of the past to the conditions of the present. Until we do that, we will continue to spin our wheels in a deliberately slow manner, wondering why, over 62 years after Brown v. Board of Education, we can still point to schools that are separate and unequal.

White Backlash, the ‘Taxpaying’ Public, and Educational Citizenship

This article argues that well before the taxpayer revolts of the 1970s, taxpayer identity was a consciously privileged claim that both obscured class divisions among whites and elevated those racialized groups presumed to have higher taxable income to a higher position in claiming citizenship rights. The paper examines hundreds of letters to the Supreme Court defending racial segregation in the wake of the Brown decision from 1954 to 1970, a third of which deployed the purportedly ‘neutral’ language of taxpayer status to argue for the maintenance of the structure of white supremacy and inequality in educational access and resources. In this ‘marketplace of citizenship,’ whiteness was automatically presumed to imply ‘taxpayer,’ a category which was then deployed to claim educational entitlement for white children. Meanwhile, ‘nontaxpayer’ was consistently racialized – regardless of actually taxpaying levels – and treated as a justification for inequality. This article argues that the very question of who can claim an identity as a ‘taxpayer’ (and why they may choose to) is deeply historically racialized and serves to construct people of color as outside the burdens and benefits of citizenship as well as ensuring that the poor more broadly are perpetually insecure in their access to rights claims.

“Money Talks”: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and the African-American Freedom Struggle in Mississippi

I am honored to participate on this plenary and I want to extend my thanks to the conference planning committee for the invitation. I come to this gathering as a civil rights scholar who has an interest in black education in the South. I do not consider it hyperbole on this the fiftieth anniversary of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to say that the legislation was the most important federal government action on black education since the second Morrill Act of 1890. Surely, some in this room would disagree with my assessment and make a strong case for the 1954 Brown decision. Indeed, the Supreme Court declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional was significant. The ruling, however, had a lot of bark but very little bite, and the recalcitrant South needed bite. We know the states of the former Confederacy needed a get-tough “if-then approach”—as in, if you don't do X, then you won't get Y.

The Race to Erase Brown v. Board of Education:The Virginia Way and the Rhetoric of Massive Resistance

The Brown vs. Board of Education ruling stands as one of the more important cases for the American civil rights movement. The Brown decision overturned separate but equal and set off a firestorm of resistance efforts throughout the South. Virginia set the precedent for this countermovement known as Massive Resistance through the development of arguments and policies to thwart integration. These arguments were based in racialized constructions of citizenship. Examining the discourse of segregationists furthers our understanding of how race is reproduced and controlled through public discourse.

The 60th Anniversary of the Historic Brown Decision: We've Made Progress in Some Areas but We Aren't There Yet

The 60th Anniversary of the Historic Brown Decision: We've Made Progress in Some Areas but We Aren't There Yet

Unlikely dissenters: white southern women in the fight for racial justice, 1920-1970

Between 1920 and 1970, a small but significant number of white women confronted white supremacy and the segregationist system in the American South, incontrovertibly contributing to its demise. Using the 1954 Brown decision as a pivot, Unlikely Dissenters examines and compares two generations of white women who spoke out against Jim Crow while remaining deeply attached to their native South. For many white women reformers, the struggle for African American civil rights was linked to their own complex process of personal emancipation from gender norms. As part of the white community, southern white women felt guilt as members of the “oppressor” group. Yet as women in a patriarchal society, they were also “victims.” This paradoxical double identity forced them to develop a special brand of activism that combatted white supremacy while emancipating them from white patriarchy. In this book, Anne Stefani shows how their unique grassroots community-oriented activism functioned within—and even used to its advantage—southern standards of respectability.

The Problems of Implementation of Educational Reform Initiatives after Brown and Their Impact on African American Children and Their Community

This article is organized into sections, with the first consisting of a discussion of many efforts to discrimination against African Americans citizens and public school students in the United States. These discriminations include slavery, Plessy v. Ferguson, and the “massive resistance” movement to public school desegregation, which was a major problem for the implementation of the Brown decisions. Additional forms of discrimination against African American public school students include school finance disparities, tracking, special education placements, and discipline practices. The second section of this article is based on educational innovations implemented in public schools to address the discriminations against African American citizens and public school students since the Brown decisions. These innovations include charter schools, vouchers, privatization, school reform, and restructuring the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Race to the Top–-the final two of which are federal programs advanced by presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama. The final section of the article includes 10 recommendations that I believe are necessary if the nation is to improve public education for African American students. This, I maintain, will not be possible without first fully recognizing the gravity of the 416-plus years of discrimination waged against African American citizens and public school students in the United States.