The creation of a separate and unequal system of education for blacks and whites in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, and black responses to the situation are described and analyzed in this book. Drawing upon material from black newspapers and journals, Chicago Board of Education documents, census data, private manuscript collections, and personal interviews, the book shows how the change from a substantially integrated to a segregated system came about, and how this transition continues to influence the current debate on education in Chicago. The first chapter describes public schooling and racial relations before 1920. The following three chapters discuss how the school system became segregated; what segregation meant for school funding and facilities in the black community; and the effects on black students of classroom racism in the black schools, overburdened families, and the ghetto's social ills. The final chapter deals with black activism and the public schools--strengths and weaknesses of the various groups dealing with educational issues, black goals and priorities regarding public education and how they have changed, and black tactics in school controversies. An epilogue compares the Chicago case with that of other urban centers in the North during the 1920s and 1930s, and looks briefly at black public schools in Chicago since the 1940s. (CMG)