Greater than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919-1965
During the half century preceding widespread school integration, black North Carolinians engaged in a dramatic struggle for equal educational opportunity as segregated schooling flourished. Drawing on archival records and oral histories, Sarah Thuesen gives voice to students, parents, teachers, school officials, and civic leaders to reconstruct this high-stakes drama. She explores how African Americans pressed for equality in curricula, higher education, teacher salaries, and school facilities; how white officials co-opted equalization as a means of forestalling integration; and, finally, how black activism for equality evolved into a fight for something "greater than equal--integrated schools that served as models of civic inclusion.
These battles persisted into the Brown era, mobilized black communities, narrowed material disparities, fostered black school pride, and profoundly shaped the eventual movement for desegregation. Thuesen emphasizes that the remarkable achievements of this activism should not obscure the inherent limitations of a fight for equality in a segregated society. In fact, these unresolved struggles are emblematic of fault lines that developed across the South, and serve as an urgent reminder of the inextricable connections between educational equality, racial diversity, and the achievement of first-class citizenship.

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Greater than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919-1965
During the half century preceding widespread school integration, black North Carolinians engaged in a dramatic struggle for equal educational opportunity as segregated schooling flourished. Drawing on archival records and oral histories, Sarah Thuesen gives voice to students, parents, teachers, school officials, and civic leaders to reconstruct this high-stakes drama. She explores how African Americans pressed for equality in curricula, higher education, teacher salaries, and school facilities; how white officials co-opted equalization as a means of forestalling integration; and, finally, how black activism for equality evolved into a fight for something "greater than equal--integrated schools that served as models of civic inclusion.
These battles persisted into the Brown era, mobilized black communities, narrowed material disparities, fostered black school pride, and profoundly shaped the eventual movement for desegregation. Thuesen emphasizes that the remarkable achievements of this activism should not obscure the inherent limitations of a fight for equality in a segregated society. In fact, these unresolved struggles are emblematic of fault lines that developed across the South, and serve as an urgent reminder of the inextricable connections between educational equality, racial diversity, and the achievement of first-class citizenship.

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Greater than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919-1965

Greater than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919-1965

by Sarah Caroline Thuesen
Greater than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919-1965

Greater than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919-1965

by Sarah Caroline Thuesen

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Overview

During the half century preceding widespread school integration, black North Carolinians engaged in a dramatic struggle for equal educational opportunity as segregated schooling flourished. Drawing on archival records and oral histories, Sarah Thuesen gives voice to students, parents, teachers, school officials, and civic leaders to reconstruct this high-stakes drama. She explores how African Americans pressed for equality in curricula, higher education, teacher salaries, and school facilities; how white officials co-opted equalization as a means of forestalling integration; and, finally, how black activism for equality evolved into a fight for something "greater than equal--integrated schools that served as models of civic inclusion.
These battles persisted into the Brown era, mobilized black communities, narrowed material disparities, fostered black school pride, and profoundly shaped the eventual movement for desegregation. Thuesen emphasizes that the remarkable achievements of this activism should not obscure the inherent limitations of a fight for equality in a segregated society. In fact, these unresolved struggles are emblematic of fault lines that developed across the South, and serve as an urgent reminder of the inextricable connections between educational equality, racial diversity, and the achievement of first-class citizenship.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781469609706
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: 08/01/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 384
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

Sarah Thuesen is an independent scholar who lives in Carrboro, N.C.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 The Price of Equality 13

Black Loyalty, Self-Help, and the "Right Kind of Citizenship"

2 Lessons in Citizenship 49

Confronting the Limits of Curricular Equalization in the Jim Crow South

3 The High Cost of It All 89

James E. Shepard and Higher Education Equalization

4 A "Most Spectacular" Victory? 129

Teacher Salary Equalization and the Dilemma of Local Leadership

5 How Can I Learn When I'm Cold? 159

A New Generation's Fight for School Facilities Equalization

6 From Equalization to Integration 201

Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in the Age of Brown

Epilogue 247

Notes 261

Bibliography 319

Index 345

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

An impressive book full of fascinating stories. Thuesen's style is clear and easy to follow, her research is excellent, and her exploration of black education in North Carolina is thorough.—Adam Fairclough, Leiden University

Historically rich and convincingly rendered. Thuesen addresses conflicting interpretations of black educational advocacy prior to desegregation without losing sight of poignant individual stories.—Vanessa Siddle Walker, Emory University

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