This article explores the twisting and complicated history of school desegregation in Kansas City, Missouri, as an example of how illusive meaningful racial integration was and still is in urban America. The goal of desegregation was difficult to achieve from the beginning, when the school district adopted its initial desegregation plan based on…

Historical accounts of advocacy for equality in educational facilities and resources for Blacks during de jure segregation in the South have generally minimized, or ignored, the role of Black educators. This article challenges the omission of Black educators in the historical portrait by providing a historical analysis of four periods of teacher…

The Coleman report, published 12 years after the Brown decision, confirmed that widespread school segregation in the United States created inequality of educational opportunity. This study examines whether racial and socioeconomic segregation, which is on the rise in the United States, is still contributing to the achievement differences among…

This article provides an overview of the major findings from the "Understanding Race and Education Study," a 5-year research project conducted by the authors at Teachers College--Columbia University and UCLA. The central theme to emerge from the 5-year historical case study of six racially diverse high schools and their graduates from the late…

In an attempt to investigate factors surrounding educational performance among different ethnic and racial groups, several areas are examined: (1) segregation; (2) performance levels and intelligence quotient variables among various ethnic groups; (3) intergroup differences among segregated and nonsegregated groups; (4) socioeconomic variables;…

Since the landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" ruling, most of the literature on school desegregation has focused on the experiences of African American students or school districts in which remedies were fashioned for African American students. However, little is known about the efforts of other ethnic and racial groups who have…

Forty years after "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" mandated equal education for black students, racial discrimination thrives in public schools. Educators must lead the fight for quality education for black students in racially isolated urban schools and for monitoring the educational offerings provided for minority…

Introduces 21 papers on racial inequality, examining 2 documents that significantly influenced American aspirations early in the century--"An American Dilemma" (Gunnar Myrdal) and "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas." The article discusses the impact of racial inequality on public education and the role of public…

Argues that the single most enduring effect of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas," has been to reverse the public policy of racial segregation approved by the Supreme Court in "Plessy v. Ferguson." The article reviews instances of resistance and violence, government use of troops, and present situations of school…

The federal government has been important in developing and enforcing school desegregation law, including "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas". The ambiguity of the "Brown" decision has allowed considerable flexibility in defining and remedying discrimination. The U.S. Department of Justice must protect the gains…

This article provides an overview of America's urban population based on the 2000 Census and the implications of increasing cultural diversity for urban public schools. It addresses three basic questions: 1. What does America's population look like at the beginning of the 21st century? 2. What challenges do children and their families face in this…

The "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" decision was a crucial 20th century civil rights event. However, civil rights leaders underestimated the depth of racism and the enormity of the task of getting all black agricultural workers into the mainstream economy. That task, left over from slavery, still faces the American…

Using ethnographic and autobiographical accounts of segregated black schools, examines culturally relevant teaching as a political pedagogy, developing the concept of politically relevant teaching rooted in utilizing knowledge of social inequalities to empower marginalized students, and noting the importance of the political clarity of teachers…

Highlights the recent history of South African education using life histories of two black teachers (one beginning and one experienced) whose careers as students and then teachers evolved against a backdrop of social and political conflict. The article considers ways that selected theories of oppression and resistance explain or fail to explain…

Reexamines the Supreme Court's school desegregation opinions, including "Brown v. Board of Education," and concludes that a multicultural society was not part of the Supreme Court's vision of public schools. Argues that the ideology of those opinions cannot be the basis of school districts' efforts to bring together racially or…