Simply put, charter schools have not lived up to their advocates' promise of equity. Using examples of tangible civil rights gains of the twentieth century (e.g. "Brown v. Board," "Lau v. Nichols") and extending feminist theories of invisible labor to include the labor of democracy, the authors argue that the charter movement…

Since the 1930s, federal housing policies and individual practices increased the spatial separation of whites and blacks. Practices such as redlining, restrictive covenants, and discrimination in the rental and sale of housing not only led to residential segregation by race but also continue to shape Whiteness and frame narratives about what…

Public schools have always been meant to provide all children with the skills and knowledge to become successful participants in the economy. But currently, a second important purpose of public education has become more salient: to promote social cohesion in a diverse and fractured democracy. As ugly and naked racism in America is further…

The long-standing effort to desegregate schools in the United States has been fostered, in part, by the development of magnet schools, which were launched in the 1960s to offer appealing choices of educational programs that could attract an integrated population of families. Magnet schools are public elementary or secondary schools that seek to…

Background/Context: The Supreme Court's June 2007 decision on the Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (PICS) provides an important context for school districts and educational policy makers as they consider the role of race in school assignment. The PICS decision has been described as essentially…

America's civic community from the end of the Great Depression through the post World War II years was hardly rational or racially neutral in its uneven and unequal treatment of African Americans and other underrepresented groups. Conventional civic scholarship of the era has ignored the complexities of a racially segregated society that in theory…

Over 40 years ago the historic Kerner Commission Report declared that America was undergoing an urban crisis whose effects were disproportionately felt by underclass populations. In "America's Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politics", Curtis Ivery and Joshua Bassett explore the persistence of this crisis today, despite public…

At a time when the United States faces unprecedented challenges at home and abroad, public schools must do far more to prepare young people to be engaged, ethical advocates of "liberty and justice for all." This article explores what makes some people behave ethically--even at the risk of their own lives--and asserts that developing…

If, as James Anderson stated, a nation committed to democracy and equality has every reason to be ashamed on "Brown v. Board of Education's" 50th anniversary, why the commemoration and celebration? By revising Anderson's challenge to examine the complex role of "Brown" in the nation's memory and history, this chapter…

The paper recapitulates the flow of a 2-day conference on the 40 years since "Brown v. Board of Education," focusing on 2 general-session presentations that examined "Brown" as promise and discussed visions for the future. "Brown" is viewed as a benchmark of American democracy and an opportunity for redemption. (SM)

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in the case of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka," which struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of the 1896 "Plessy v. Ferguson" decision. The Court claimed, "To separate them [African American children] from others of similar age…

The Supreme Court's landmark Brown decision changed the total pattern of race relations in the United States and helped to solidify the foundations of American democracy for the benefit of all Americans. Ironically, although the specific issue which resulted in the Brown decision was concerned with the constitutionality of racially segregated…

Students, parents, and teachers of today should know full well that even a whole phalanx of educational reforms does not automatically prevail over the social bigotries that persist from the past. This paper provides an uncomfortable reminder of how the democratic purposes of U.S. education must be sustained not only by court decisions and…

People who read become absorbed in a process of discovery about the world around them; books open doors to otherwise inaccessible places and introduce readers to profound new ideas. Approximately 15 seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade members of the StreetSquash Book Club in Harlem meet on Friday afternoons to read, write, and discuss topics…

The parallels between South Africa and the United States run deep. For the United States, that moment of transition, at least as far as education is concerned, was the landmark ruling of 1954, described in the shorthand, "Brown v. Board of Education"; for South Africa, that moment came 40 years later when every citizen could, for the…