Transforming the Elite: Black Students and the Desegregation of Private Schools

When traditionally white public schools in the South became sites of massive resistance in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, numerous white students exited the public system altogether, with parents choosing homeschooling or private segregationist academies. But some historically white elite private schools opted to desegregate. The black students that attended these schools courageously navigated institutional and interpersonal racism but ultimately emer...