Integrated

How American Schools Failed Black Children

De: Noliwe Rooks

Narrado por: Noliwe Rooks

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.

©2025 Noliwe Rooks (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Integrated is a powerful, heartbreaking ode to the sustained determination of Black parents and their children to access quality education only to have that quest thwarted at every turn by governors, white parents, and judges. The personal and societal consequences are devastating. . . . Through memoir, data, studies, and histories, Rooks lays the responsibility where it rightfully belongs and demonstrates that systemic educational inequality is not sustainable for a viable democracy."—Carol Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide

"An indispensable and brilliantly crafted examination of the impact of integration on Black children and the broader trajectory of America’s democracy. Rooks is one of the most admired scholars in education today, and her writing style is nothing short of magical. . . . With so much uncertainty facing education today, Integrated is a book that must find its way into the hands of every teacher, parent, and high school student, as it reminds us that the failures of the past do not have to become the permanent reality of our future."—Bettina Love, New York Times bestselling author of Punished for Dreaming

"This illuminating study . . . is a paradigm-shifting reassessment of a milestone of the civil rights movement."—Publishers Weekly (starred)

If we ignore the problem it will get worse.

The author's organization of historical events and the consequences then, and now. Was most interesting to me.

The voice was great This book point of departure is the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education

There was nothing I did not like. The book did not drag on and on.