This is an account of the politics and philosophies involved in the education of black American children during the last 50 years. The author talks to black teachers who were among the first to teach in desegrated southern schools, and to others who taught in large urban districts such as Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. They discuss the losses and gains accompanying desegregation, the inspirations and rewards of teaching, and the challenges and solutions they see in the coming years.
Author Biography
Michele Foster is Sherman Family Endowed Chair in Urban Education Research and the executive director of the Urban Education Research Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A frequent contributor to journals and books on education, she is the author of Black Teachers on Teaching (The New Press); the editor of Readings on Equal Education, vol. 11: Qualitative Investigations into Schools and Schooling; and a co-editor of Unrelated Kin: Ethnic and Gender Identity in Women's Personal Narratives and Growing Up African American in Catholic School.
