{"product_id":"paradoxes-of-desegregation-african-american-struggles-for-educational-equity-in-charleston-south-carolina-1926-1972-9781570036323","title":"Paradoxes of Desegregation: African American Struggles for Educational Equity in Charleston, South Carolina, 1926-1972","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn eye-opening investigation into local evasions of school integration\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this provocative appraisal of desegregation in South Carolina, R. Scott Baker contends that half a century after the \u003ci\u003eBrown\u003c\/i\u003e decision we still know surprisingly little about the new system of public education that replaced segregated caste arrangements in the South. Much has been written about the most dramatic battles for black access to southern schools, but Baker examines the rational and durable evasions that authorities institutionalized in response to African American demands for educational opportunity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA case study of southern evasions, \u003ci\u003eParadoxes of Desegregation\u003c\/i\u003e documents the new educational order that grew out of decades of conflict between African American civil rights activists and South Carolina's political leadership. During the 1940s, Baker shows, a combination of black activism on a local level and NAACP litigation forced state officials to increase funding for black education. This early phase of the struggle in turn accelerated the development of institutions that cultivated a new generation of grass roots leaders.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBaker demonstrates that white resistance to integration did not commence or crystallize after \u003ci\u003eBrown.\u003c\/i\u003e Instead, beginning in the 1940s, authorities in South Carolina institutionalized an exclusionary system of standardized testing that, according to Baker, exploited African Americans' educational disadvantages, limited access to white schools, and confined black South Carolinians to separate institutions. As massive resistance to desegregation collapsed in the late 1950s, officials in other southern states followed South Carolina's lead, adopting testing policies that continue to govern the region's educational system.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eParadoxes of Desegregation\u003c\/i\u003e brings much needed historical perspective to contemporary debates about the landmark federal education law, No Child Left Behind. Baker analyzes decades of historical evidence related to high-stakes testing and concludes that desegregation, while a triumph for advantaged blacks, has paradoxically been a tragedy for most African Americans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eR. Scott Baker \u003c\/b\u003eis an associate professor of education at Wake Forest University. A former high school teacher and literacy coordinator, he lives in Lewisville, North Carolina.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of South Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50556952445202,"sku":"9781570036323","price":41.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ae5439ca-f8ca-4086-a8da-8c6d4d390a3a.jpg?v=1731767703","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/paradoxes-of-desegregation-african-american-struggles-for-educational-equity-in-charleston-south-carolina-1926-1972-9781570036323","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}