The originators of municipal radio station WNYC foresaw radio as a means of extending city government and an instrument to educate, inform, and entertain the citizens. Because the municipal radio concept emerged in the early 1920s, before the medium's industrial structure was entrenched, an opportunity existed to develop an innovative model of…

Reflects on the potency of libraries as community assets during the past 2000 years. Traces the preservation of knowledge in ancient libraries. Addresses ecclesiastical library development and the relatively recent rise of public and academic libraries; identifies their connections with their communities, and the relevance for today. Describes…

Traces the development and decline of communism and radical politics in Sheridan County, Montana, 1918-34. Examines conflicts that split the community into conservative and radical camps (primarily townspeople and farmers, respectively); the school and school board as defenders of conservative morality; intrusions of politics into children's…

Although David Hornbeck became Philadelphia Schools' new superintendent in September 1994, critics are already saying the honeymoon is over. In a school system characterized by student absenteeism, high dropout rates, minimal community support, and declining resources, Hornbeck's reform agenda (Children Achieving) may receive inadequate support.…

In April, 1919, at the request of the Board of Education of Memphis, Tennessee, the United States Commissioner of Education submitted the conditions on which the Bureau of Education would make a survey of the public school system of that city. This study of the Memphis schools is intended to be a study of policies and practices; not of persons.…

In recent years there has been an increasing interest and emphasis on the staff personnel administrative policies and procedures of local school systems. This interest and emphasis applies not only to the nature or characteristics of the staff personnel policies developed by school systems but also to the methods used in developing policies and…

Among the first of the Model Cities programs, Dayton's program was directed by African American community activists, who instituted important school and neighborhood reforms but blocked efforts to racially desegregate the public schools. The story of Dayton's Model Cities Demonstration Project raises important questions about whether urban renewal…

The limited coverage of blacks in "The Virginia Gazette" during integration marked a symbolic step toward greater, or equal inclusion of black society in the newspaper but proved far from fulfilling the newspaper's role as a community newspaper. Personal interaction between blacks and whites in Williamsburg (Virginia) did not occur very…

This book examines the lives of representative White, Black, and American Indian women on the Oklahoma frontier after the abrupt opening of Indian Territory to non-Indian settlement in 1889. Drawing on primary sources, particularly diaries and letters, it focuses on the intersection of race, gender, class, and culture in the relationships among…

Based on oral histories and archival documents, this book reconstructs the unwritten history of the Mexican-origin community of Santa Paula, California. This previously unwritten history contrasts sharply with the official version, which focuses on Anglo American accomplishments and excludes the area's earliest settlers and longest…

Challenging conventional wisdom that Mexican Americans were passive victims of their educational fates, this book examines the Mexican American struggle for equal education during the 1960s and 1970s in a California community "Brownfield." It looks at responses of a predominantly White school system and community to the growing number of…

Public education in the United States is a function of the States. In discharging this responsibility each State has recognized that a considerable degree of local control of education is essential. The establishment of local school districts and the creation of local boards of education to administer school district affairs reflect this point of…