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Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals: What Melba endured as a high school junior integrating Central High in 1957 can only be described as open warfare on African-Americans. The internal strength she exhibited, to get up and go to school every day, is something I can't even imagine. I didn't enjoy reading about this shameful time in US history, but I'm very glad I read the book. It should be required reading in every high school in America, because we clearly have not evolved past this as a society yet.
posted by COD on Mar 17, 2022 - 1 comment

Last week we looked at a school district integrating by accident. This week: a city going all out to integrate its schools. Plus, a girl who comes up with her own one-woman integration plan.
posted by lunch on Aug 9, 2015 - 6 comments

Right now, all sorts of people are trying to rethink and reinvent education, to get poor minority kids performing as well as white kids. But there's one thing nobody tries anymore, despite lots of evidence that it works: desegregation. Nikole Hannah-Jones looks at a district that, not long ago, accidentally launched a desegregation program. First of a two-part series. [more inside]
posted by damayanti on Aug 3, 2015 - 13 comments

A story of Abraham Bolden, the first black Secret Service agent on the White House detail. A story of divine fate and segregation within the Secret Service. [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine on Jun 28, 2015 - 1 comment