“Since the days of enslavement, African Americans have fought to gain access to quality education. Education can be transformative. It reshapes the health outcomes of a people; it breaks the cycle of poverty; it improves housing conditions; it raises the standard of living. Perhaps, most meaningfully, educational attainment significantly increases voter participation. In short, education strengthens a democracy.” Dr. Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, and The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. At the core of her research agenda is how policy is made and unmade, how racial inequality and racism affect that process and outcome, and how those who have taken the brunt of those laws, executive orders, and directives have worked to shape, counter, undermine, reframe, and, when necessary, dismantle the legal and political edifice used to limit their rights and their humanity. She joins us to discuss her work, in particular, chapter 3 from White Rage – “Burning Brown to the Ground”, which looks at the White rage backlash to the Brown v. Board decision, and all of the ways that the progress promised in the decision were undermined both in the immediate aftermath of the decision, and continuing through to today. With a gift for making the illegible legible, Dr. Anderson provides us with a clear eyed look at the history that has led to the widely inequitable education system we have today. And while the topic is heavy, she brings joy and laughter to the conversation in a way that can only leave you smiling through the pain.

 

LINKS:

• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide
• We Are Not Yet Equal – a young readers version of White Rage
• One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy
• The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.
• Eye’s Off The Prize – Dr. Anderson’s 2003 book on the shift from a fight for human rights to civil rights at the NAACP
• Charles Hamilton Houston – The first general counsel of NAACP
• Plessy v Ferguson (also, listen to our episode about the Plessy case 125 years later).
• Brown II – The implementation decision – “All deliberate speed . . .”
• Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker – listen to her episode on our podcast.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Shelby County v. Holder
• Mothers of Massive Resistance – Dr. Elizabeth McRea
• Gabriel’s Revolt
• The Sum Of Us – Heather McGhee (also, hear her episode on our podcast)
• My Grandmother’s Hands – Resmaa Menakem
• The Fisk Jubilee Singers
• Maceo Snipes

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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