The purpose of this article is to critically probe racial discourse around how the convergence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and white nationalist organizations complicate the reality of segregation, education, and social change in a rural community in Central Georgia. Critical race studies ground the work, using narratives as a device to frame and…

In this article, inspired by Toni Morrison's evocative description of places that are "never going away" and events that "will happen again," the author explores the historical legacies of racism, law enforcement, and educational inequality in Covington, Kentucky. The author argues that these legacies can best be understood by…

A Du Boisian framework is outlined for the sociology of education. Because of the totalizing nature of racial inequality, W. E. B. Du Bois was forced to simultaneously consider Black students' educational experiences and outcomes at both the macro and micro levels. The framework's central problematic is the macro-micro feedback loop between racial…

This article explores the complex contexts and relationships that enabled student civil rights advocates to emerge at Howard University in the 1930s and 1940s. Such histories are valuable given their realistic portrayal of the daily challenges, interpersonal collisions, collaborations, and organizational positioning that made some human rights…

In light of contemporary school choice proposals and the 60th anniversary of the Southern Manifesto, the Prince Edward County, Virginia public schools crisis provides interesting historical discussion. Prince Edward County (PEC), a rural community in central Virginia, was one of five school districts represented in the 1954 "Brown v. Board of…

This paper focuses on how shifting conceptions of youth underpinned young people's activism in the 1950s and 1960s. This paper specifically examines conceptions of youth as it changed throughout the twentieth century. G. Stanley Hall articulated a distinct notion of "adolescence" in the early twentieth century. But the "Scottsboro…

The year 1968 denotes a particularly salient moment in American history, not least because it marks the year in which the Civil Rights movement lost its charismatic leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. The assassination of King on April 4, 1968, resulted in widespread and spontaneous uprisings across the country, including one in Kansas City. Not…

This ethnography of Belvedere, Mississippi black students integrating the high school during Freedom of Choice (1966) posits that school experiences were an important part in the formation of identity in the South during Civil Rights. This article explores the relationship between individual activism existing conjointly and separate from school…