Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children

A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author's family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice

"Rooks deftly sketches this lamentable, sobering history."--The Atlantic

On May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Heralded as a massive victory for civil rights, the decision's goal was to give Black children equitable access to educational opportunities and clear a path to a better future. Yet in the years following the ruling, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods were shuttered or saw their funding dwindle; Black educators were fired en masse; and Black children faced discrimination and violence from white peers and educators as they joined resource-rich schools that were reticent to accept the new students.

Award-winning scholar Noliwe Rooks weaves together sociological data, cultural history, and personal records to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. At once assiduously researched and deeply engaging, Integrated tells the story of how education has remained both a tool for community progress and a seemingly inscrutable cultural puzzle. Rooks's deft hand turns the story of integration's past and future on its head and shows how we may better understand and support generations of students to come.

Author: Noliwe Rooks
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 03/18/2025
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780553387391


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/01/2024 pg. 13
Publishers Weekly 01/27/2025
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2025
Booklist 03/01/2025 pg. 24

About the Author
Noliwe Rooks is the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Africana Studies, and the chair of Africana Studies at Brown University. Her work explores how race and gender both impact and are impacted by popular culture, social history, and political life in the United States. She studies the cultural and racial implications of beauty, fashion, and adornment; race, capitalism and education, and the urban politics of food and cannabis production. Rooks has received research funding from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson School among others. She is the author of five books, and a regular contributor to outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Time, and NPR.