4.0
Integrated
ByPublisher Description
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF 2025 • A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author’s family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice
"Rooks deftly sketches this lamentable, sobering history."—The Atlantic
On May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Heralded as a massive victory for civil rights, the decision’s goal was to give Black children equitable access to educational opportunities and clear a path to a better future. Yet in the years following the ruling, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods were shuttered or saw their funding dwindle; Black educators were fired en masse; and Black children faced discrimination and violence from white peers and educators as they joined resource-rich schools that were reticent to accept the new students.
Award-winning scholar Noliwe Rooks weaves together sociological data, cultural history, and personal records to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. At once assiduously researched and deeply engaging, Integrated tells the story of how education has remained both a tool for community progress and a seemingly inscrutable cultural puzzle. Rooks’s deft hand turns the story of integration’s past and future on its head and shows how we may better understand and support generations of students to come.
"Rooks deftly sketches this lamentable, sobering history."—The Atlantic
On May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Heralded as a massive victory for civil rights, the decision’s goal was to give Black children equitable access to educational opportunities and clear a path to a better future. Yet in the years following the ruling, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods were shuttered or saw their funding dwindle; Black educators were fired en masse; and Black children faced discrimination and violence from white peers and educators as they joined resource-rich schools that were reticent to accept the new students.
Award-winning scholar Noliwe Rooks weaves together sociological data, cultural history, and personal records to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. At once assiduously researched and deeply engaging, Integrated tells the story of how education has remained both a tool for community progress and a seemingly inscrutable cultural puzzle. Rooks’s deft hand turns the story of integration’s past and future on its head and shows how we may better understand and support generations of students to come.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesIntegrated Reviews
4.0
Rosie Isenman
Created 3 months agoShare
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Sarah Krajewski
Created 4 months agoShare
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“Despite the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 that was supposed to outlaw segregation in public schools, public school districts all over the country resisted integration. Using data and various stories from Black Americans, author Noliwe Rooks shares a vivid account of the trauma done to Black children. Many Black Americans did not want the Brown decision, and when the decision came down, Black schools were closed, Black teachers found themselves with no jobs, and Black students were exposed to racism by white teachers and students. The goal of this book is to find a way beyond our present systems to make education equitable for children of socioeconomic and ethnic groups in America.
A great read about the history of segregation in America’s public schools. I listened to the audiobook, read by the author. I love that Rooks wove history together with her own family’s experiences in public schools, like her son’s and her own, as well as her experiences as a Black professor at Brown University. I also liked her explanation of what education can look like using the “community approach” that the Black Panthers helped create.”
Jodie
Created 6 months agoShare
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About Noliwe Rooks
Noliwe Rooks is the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Africana Studies, and the chair of Africana Studies at Brown University. Her work explores how race and gender both impact and are impacted by popular culture, social history, and political life in the United States. She is the author of five books and is a regular contributor to outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Time, and NPR.
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