Divided We Fail: The Story of an African American Community That Ended the Era of School Desegregation
Despite the intent of the Brown decision, racial politics since the landmark ruling have yielded so much resegregation of public schools as to challenge the decades-old desegregation orders that black and white parents often found dysfunctional. Education reporter Garland chronicles the little-known role of black parents in the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the use of race in assigning students in public schools. The parents of children attending Central High School in Louisville, Kentucky, were motivated by the massive firing of black teachers and closing of traditional black schools when they failed to attract white students, whose parents opted out of the public school system. Garland, who grew up in Louisville and whose mother worked in the public schools as a social worker, offers heart-wrenching portraits of the families who suffered through the violence of desegregation and the loss of treasured community institutions, which led them to fight to end efforts in what had become a one-sided process. This is a compelling look at the complexities of race and class in the continued struggle for racial parity and high-quality education. --Vanessa Bush