Horace Mann, John Pierce, and other educational reformers pushed for common schools in the mid-1800s. As these schools developed, so too did the formal and informal segregation of African Americans. Since that time, school integration has been a long-standing debate among African Americans, a centerpiece for Black educational struggles, and something heavily, and at times violently, resisted by whites. Zoë Burkholder's An African American Dilemma captures the most enduring education argument Black communities have had since the founding of the common schools: whether Blacks should be educated in integrated schools or Black-controlled separate schools. Most research on Black educational history, school segregation, and desegregation focus on the South. Yet, most scholars who study more than one era of northern educational history recognize the enduring argument over separation versus integration. Though fierce debates ensued, demonstrating that Black people were not monolithic, there was little doubt that Black people wanted to be educated and viewed education as a source of freedom; they only disagreed on where and with whom education should occur.
An African American Dilemma is a much-needed comprehensive history of the North that covers the 1840s to the present, adding important periodization to this history. This important study focuses on cities, suburbs, and small towns, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. The breadth of locations discussed help substantiate Burkholder's argument. She contends that school integration and separate, Black-controlled schools were both important political strategies used throughout African American educational history. Furthermore, civil rights efforts were not solely dominated by the push for integration, and groups with differing strategies still worked together to advance Black freedom.
Chapter 1 discusses the first period, 1840-1900. Burkholder captures the early debates in several northern communities where common schools and segregation grew simultaneously. Some northern laws called for segregated schools, but by the end of the nineteenth century most shifted from de jure segregation to de facto segregation. Though Blacks fought for integration under both sets of laws, their efforts and court wins were largely ignored. Burkholder effectively displays the debates and activism for integration and separate schools, with accounts in well-studied large cities like Boston as well as lesser-known stories in Cincinnati and suburban Jamaica, New York.
Documenting the racial uplift era from 1900 to 1940, the second chapter effectively shows how school segregation in the North increased because of the growing Black northern population resulting from the Great Migration, entrenched housing segregation, and school administrators’ purposeful segregation policies. As these changes occurred, arguments about the best type of schooling for Black people persisted, though scholars documented increasing evidence that Black students did better in quality segregated schools with caring teachers than in integrated schools with racist teachers. The rise in Black nationalism and the concentration of Black teachers in segregated schools also lent credence to separate schools. Burkholder also describes white violence against Black education—in the form of burning schools, and students and teachers beaten or run out of town. The visceral and violent nature of white supremacy meant choosing separation was not always a political act. For some, particularly Black parents, it was practical and rational.
The third chapter focuses on 1940-1965 and represents a time of increasing segregation, despite the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling and increasing, sometimes militant calls for school desegregation. Cases in New Rochelle, New York, were successful, but segregation was harder to fight in other areas like Gary, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois. Whites in the North were more resistant to desegregation despite mouthing support for civil rights. Not all Blacks were convinced that integration was best, and Burkholder shows a subtle generational shift in strategies in Chicago.
The final two chapters cover the periods from 1966 to 1974 and from 1975 to the present. In chapter 4, community control is prominently featured, particularly through the histories in New York, Newark, and Boston. In theory, community control seemed like a great idea. If segregation persists, Black leaders should have control of predominantly Black schools. Yet, the control given to Blacks and Puerto Ricans was restricted and obstructed. The practices of firing teachers without due process and not honoring their contracts led to strikes and backlash. At the same time, the Supreme Court and white backlash limited the impact of school desegregation in places like Detroit and Boston. In the final chapter, Burkholder examines how, after 1975, activists attempted to combine the best aspects of integration and separate, Black-controlled education. Desegregation plans also utilized a mix of controlled choice and magnet schools, and such plans were effective in Montclair, New Jersey. The chapter also features school integration struggles in Seattle, Washington, and Hartford, Connecticut, along with the continuing debates around charter schools and contemporary school choice.
Burkholder concludes with a reiteration of the four major contributions the book has made: (1) the North has served as an important location for civil rights activism since the creation of common schools; (2) the long-standing debates about school integration demonstrate that integration was not the only or always the major route of educational activism; (3) northern whites, like their southern counterparts, historically disapproved of integration, even while spouting claims of equality; and (4) the fight for equal educational opportunity must blend the best of both integration and Black-controlled schools. These findings add to and elaborate on the literature on the North.
Zoë Burkholder should be commended for writing such a superb book. An African American Dilemma has strong use of social science and legal research from scholars like Gunnar Myrdal, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Derrick Bell. Painstakingly researched, Burkholder seems to have left few stones unturned. Sources include newspapers, research studies, court cases, the NAACP papers, school board records, and a plethora of secondary sources. She manages the varying viewpoints of white conservatives, moderates, and liberals as well as Black nationalists, integrationists, moderates, civil rights leaders, and Black power advocates. Burkholder also simplifies a complex history with excellent writing, representative vignettes, and amplified voices of scholars, leaders, teachers, parents, and students.
Inevitably, even the most comprehensive studies may fail to feature every example or city. Burkholder deftly chooses representative samples to demonstrate both support for and opposition to integration. Such an approach can also lead to some viewpoints receiving minimal coverage. It would have been useful to see more coverage of Black nationalism in the earlier eras as well as more Black views of community control. Finally, perhaps the study should have ended prior to the contemporary period, because the examples beyond 2007 are limited. These are all minor points of preference rather than critiques.
So much of the history of northern Black education is only found in case studies or limited to certain eras. This study is timely, extensive, and a major contribution to the history of African American education. More significantly, it reminds us that both strategies of integration and separation were thoughtful responses in the various historical contexts. Certainly, Black people should be integrated into the larger society to fulfill their roles as citizens, claim the luxuries of freedom, and avoid underfunded and inequitable education. They should also be free to value an education in Black-controlled spaces where students can be nurtured and cultivated to their highest potential, as Vanessa Siddle Walker has argued. Throughout the back-and-forth between these strategies, white supremacy has truncated both responses. The value of these continued debates is evidence that Black people are unwilling to sit back and allow white supremacy to continue unabated.
