American schools, resegregating gradually for almost two decades, are now experiencing accelerating isolation and this will doubtless be intensified by the recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2007, the Supreme Court handed down its first major decision on school desegregation in 12 years in the Louisville and Seattle cases. A…

The success of voluntary affirmative action plans adopted by public housing authorities in four Kentucky cities is documented in this report. Progress toward concerted desegregation efforts in other Kentucky cities is cited. Desegregation methods used by Kentucky municipal housing authorities are outlined and their effectiveness is illustrated.…

Bernie Bickerstaff discusses how growing up as an African-American athlete in rural Kentucky prepared him to become the general manager of the Denver Nuggets. Triumphing over the area's racial segregation, poverty, and mining perils gave him a sense of strength that enabled him to overcome barriers in advancing his career. (LP)

This report examines the state of integration at 22 public housing authorities in Kentucky. Family residency data showed that the public housing authorities of Jefferson County and Louisville were the first and second most segregated authorities in Kentucky as of July 1985. Overall, however, desegregation at Kentucky's public housing authorities…

Black teachers lost employment ground while White teachers gained employment ground in Kentucky's public schools between 1953-54 and 1983-84. The number of Black teachers rose by 181 while the number of White teachers rose by 13,672, an average net increase of one Black teacher for every 76 White teachers. The percentage of Black teachers declined…

It's a little-known fact, but, 50 years ago, the junior high and high schools of Topeka, Kan., were integrated--though in name only. Fear was the order of the day at the high school, where an African American assistant superintendent by the name of Harrison Caldwell roamed the halls as the "White folks' enforcer," ensuring that African…

Relatively few people, black or white, who know anything about the reality of race relations in America during the 1950s would contest the revolutionary nature of the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in "Brown v. Board of Education." However, 50 years later, scholars are asking whether "Brown" has done more harm than good. There…

These two papers offer critiques of two essays that appeared in "Essays in Twentieth-Century Southern Education: Exceptionalism and its Limits," edited by Wayne J. Urban. The first paper examines Linda Buchanan and Philo Hutcheson's interpretation of the debate which underscored the well-known conflict between Booker T. Washington-W.E.B.…

A comparison of major city school systems in 10 Southern States shows clearly that Louisville has the worst record in both student and faculty segregation. And the very high ratio of black students to black teachers shows that Louisville trails all the other 11 systems in this study in the vital area of hiring black teachers. Four comparisons show…

In this report the way in which Jefferson County, Kentucky, school officials have conducted integration efforts is documented. Segregation persists in the County. Specifically, 15 of the 16 formerly black elementary schools have retained their racial identity by having black student enrollments which exceeded the desegregation plan guidelines.…

This book examines the history of 20th century racial segregation in Kentucky higher education, the last state in the South to enact legislation banning interracial education in private schools and the first to remove it. In five chapters and an epilogue, the book traces the growth of racism, the period of acceptance of racism, the black…