The Supreme Court's Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas decision of 1954 yielded unwavering and contentious mass resistance to dismantling the legally sanctioned dual system of public schooling in the United States. Extensive literature exists that focuses on the action of the courts, legislative actions of the federal government, and actions of local politicians and school districts addressing the challenges posed in transitioning from a legalized racially segregated system to a nationally integrated school system. School Desegregation and US Presidents chronicle a different look at the nation's attempt to address the landmark decision...THE POWER OF THE PRESIDENCY...Receiving short shrift in the literature has been the use and effect of the" bully pulpit" of seven Presidents providing leadership to resolve those issues related to the implementation of the mandates of Brown. It examines how the various symbolic and political powers of each President were exercised to advance or stall progress in desegregating the country's schools. Words matter! In accessing the bully pulpits of each of the Presidents, significant examples of their voices are provided through excerpts of their speeches, press coverage, and excerpts with cabinet members or other administration officials and civil rights leaders.

Throughout the nation's history, from before the Civil War through Reconstruction, across the years of lynchings and segregation to the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the battles over busing, no issue has divided the American people more than race, and at the heart of the race issue has been the conflict over school segregation and desegregation. Prior to the Civil War, South Carolina enacted the first compulsory illiteracy law, which made it a crime to teach slaves to write, and other Southern states soon followed South Carolina's example. After the Civil War, schools for blacks were founded throughout the South, including many Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision established the principle of separate but equal education, which led to decades of segregation. With the 1954 Brown decision, the Supreme Court overturned the separate but equal principle, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 empowered the federal government to affect school desegregation. The process of desegregation continues to this day, with much debate and mixed results. Through more than 260 alphabetically arranged entries, this comprehensive reference book describes persons, court decisions, terms and concepts, legislation, reports and books, types of plans, and organizations central to the struggle for educational equality. The volume covers topics ranging from emotionally laden terms such as busing to complex legal concepts such as de facto and de jure segregation. Each entry includes factual information, a summary of different viewpoints, and a brief bibliography. The book includes an introduction, which outlines the history of school segregation and desegregation, along with a chronology and extensive bibliographic material. Thus this reference is a complete guide to school segregation and desegregation in elementary, secondary, and higher education in the United States.

The president is arguably the most recognized and powerful individual in the United States. This reference work explores the American presidency in relation to issues of race concerning the African American community. This work provides a contemporary and refreshing examination of the American presidency through the prism of race and race relations in America, revealing a long and complicated relationship between the U.S. presidency and the African American community. The book evaluates each of the forty-five American presidents' policies, cabinet appointments, and handling of race matters in the United States. Following an extensive timeline, chronological chapters take an incisive look at each American president's life and career as well as the policies enacted during his presidency that affected the African American community. The presidents' personal writings, memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies frame their views on the issue of race and how they dealt with it before, during, and after their presidency.

First Published in 1997. Focusing on a case study from the civil rights movement, the author illuminates the issues and problems that emerge when schools are used to advance social equality. He examines the political controversies surrounding the racial desegregation of public and private schools in Dayton over a 40-year period during which the city initiated several nationally recognized programs to overcome segregation. The book also discusses racial integration in public and religious schools in different parts of the United States during that time. It describes experiences in public schools, Catholic schools, and private schools covering individually guided education, ethnic studies, magnet schools, compensatory education, and the New Futures Program funded by a private foundation. The text is innovative in its survey of the relationships between city administrators, public school officials, and Catholic and private school educators. It also provides important analysis of how curriculum changes have affected desegregation and examines the role of private philanthropies in education.

"The United States Commission on Civil Rights sponsored a consultation in 1975 to review the relationship between desegregation, court orders, and suburbanization, as well as to assess what further role the Commission might play in discharging its responsibility to advance the constitutional rights of all children to a desegregated education. This book contains four papers which were presented and discussed at the consultation."--Abstract from ERIC website.

This is a revision and an updating of the first edition, published in 2000. Presidents from Washington to Obama (not included are William Henry Harrison and James A. Garfield because of very short terms) are rated in five categories: Foreign Relations, Domestic Programs, Administration and Intergovernmental Relations, Leadership and Decision Making, and Presidential Comportment. Each president is evaluated on his effectiveness in each area and a final analysis is provided for the scores combined. The presidents are then ranked overall. The most overrated and underrated chief executives are identified. Each entry includes biographical and political information, as well as an analysis of their overall behavior and status.

This book examines the history of the school desegregation movement in St. Louis, Missouri. Underlining the 2014 killing of Michael Brown as a catalyst for re-examination of school desegregation, Rias delves into the connection between contemporary school segregation and social justice, probing the ways that “soft racism”—a term the author uses to describe the non-violent, yet equally harmful, types of protests that opponents of desegregation utilized—has permeated St. Louis since the days of Brown v. Board of Education. The chapters feature the voices of those who were central to the desegregation fight in St. Louis, showing how the devastating effects of school segregation and soft racism linger today.