School desegregation strategies are examined in political contexts to focus on the politics of quality schooling for African Americans. Through this approach, racialized uses of power in white self-interest are shown to influence policy making and policy implementation related to education. Essays include: (1) "Reclaiming Historical Visions of Quality Schooling: The Legacy of Early 20th-Century Black Intellectuals" (William H. Watkins); (2) "The Brown Decision Revisited: Mathematizing a Social Problem" (William F. Tate, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Carl A. Grant); (3) "Only One Oar in the Water: The Political Failure of School Desegregation in Yorkers, New York" (Judith L. Failer, Anna Harvey, and Jennifer Hochschild); (4) "Implementation of Court-Ordered Desegregation by District-Level School Administrators" (Jennifer J. Beaumont); (5) "Promoting Positive Peer Relations in Desegregated Schools" (Janet W. Schofield); (6) "Cultural Ignorance and School Desegregation: A Community Narrative" (Van Dempsey and George Noblit); (7) "Before and After School Desegregation: African American Parents' Involvement in Schools" (Patricia A. Edwards); (8) "High-Quality Schooling for African American Students" (Ronald D. Henderson, and others); (9) "African American Student Leadership: Implications for Quality in College Achievement in the 21st Century" (Carolyn J. Thompson); (10) "Can Institutions Care? Evidence from the Segregated Schooling of African American Children" (Emilie V. Siddle Walker); (11) "The All-Black School: Inherently Unequal or a Culture-Based Alternative?" (Christine J. Faltz and Donald O. Leake); and (12) "School Desegregation, the Politics of Culture, and the Council of Independent Black Institutions" (Mwalimu J. Shujaa and Hannibal T. Afrik). References follow the chapters. (Contains 3 figures and 19 tables.) (SLD)