Race, Schools, & Hope: African Americans and School Choice After Brown

''Race, Schools, and Hope serves as a poignant reminder that despite America's history of racism in education there are many communities that still view education as a means to further individual and collective aspirations. This book is a must-read for activists and educators who understand how critical education is in advancing civil rights and furthering community empowerment.''
--Pedro Noguera, New York University, author of City Schools and the American Dream

This timely book helps us to make sense of why and how African Americans participate in and lead school choice reforms. The author argues that regardless of the success or failure of these reforms, they represent an important political phenomenon in American schooling and in African American history and politics. The first section of the book focuses on African American school choice in the post-Brown period, examining how these reforms became a response to desegregation politics and policies. The second section focuses on a charter school in Oakland, California that the author helped to found at a time when Oakland's public schools were severely underserving African American students. This provocative book provides:

* A balanced, historical account of school choice reforms, including the connection between schools and the politics that impact them.

* An inside perspective on the building of a charter school as a politically feasible strategy of equal schooling and racial equality.

* An examination of race and school choice from a non-desegregation-focused perspective.

* An example of African American leaders and communities grappling with the hope that American institutions, like schools, can equally serve them and their children.