Freedom Road: NYTimes: School Diversity Based on Income Segregates Some

"The Selma of the North": Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee

Between 1958 and 1970, a distinctive movement for racial justice emerged from unique circumstances in Milwaukee. A series of local leaders inspired growing numbers of people to participate in campaigns against employment and housing discrimination, segregated public schools, the membership of public officials in discriminatory organizations, welfare cuts, and police brutality.

The Milwaukee movement culminated in the dramatic—and sometimes violent—1967 open housing campaign. A white Catholic priest, James Groppi, led the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos in a militant struggle that lasted for 200 consecutive nights and provoked the ire of thousands of white residents. After working-class mobs attacked demonstrators, some called Milwaukee “the Selma of the North.” Others believed the housing campaign represented the last stand for a nonviolent, interracial, church-based movement.

Patrick Jones tells a powerful and dramatic story that is important for its insights into civil rights history: the debate over nonviolence and armed self-defense, the meaning of Black Power, the relationship between local and national movements, and the dynamic between southern and northern activism. Jones offers a valuable contribution to movement history in the urban North that also adds a vital piece to the national story.

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Blurbs:

Think you know the full story of the civil rights era? Patrick Jones's masterful study of the movement in Milwaukee will make you think again. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The Selma of the North provides a devastating rebuttal of many of the conventional narratives of the civil rights movement. Here a vibrant nonviolent movement in the de-industrializing Midwest grows into a Black Power movement led by urban youth and a white Catholic priest who use confrontational direct action to lay bare the fissures of racial inequality in the 'liberal' North.
--Jeanne Theoharis, Brooklyn College, editor of Freedom North and Groundwork

A well-researched, well-written, and important history. Based on a rich array of sources, this book enhances our understanding of civil rights activism in the postwar urban North and establishes a useful foundation for the comparison of similar developments elsewhere in the country.
--Joe William Trotter, Jr., Carnegie Mellon University, author of Black Milwaukee

This book fills a serious gap in the literature of the civil rights revolution, joining studies on other cities in laying the groundwork on race and civil rights in the postwar urban North. Jones tells a good story, capturing events that might otherwise be lost to history.
--Arnold R. Hirsch, University of New Orleans, author of Making the Second Ghetto

The Selma of the North is an insightful and invigorating addition to the growing literature on black freedom struggles outside of the South. Jones's important and informative account writes Milwaukee back into the narrative of the civil rights-Black Power era and in the process expands our understanding of postwar America.
--Peniel E. Joseph, Brandeis University, author of Waiting Till the Midnight Hour

The Selma of the North is a riveting new story of the civil rights movement in America, a tale on par with Selma, Birmingham, and Montgomery in its power and importance. Jones's magisterial research and magnetic prose illuminate the untold story of the battle for the urban north in the 1960s, a battle that shows how race has always been the Achilles heel of white progressives. This story transcends easy dichotomies of black and white, North and South, radical and reformist. How did a group called 'the Commandos' define nonviolence? How did a white Catholic priest become a 'Black Power' leader? If this is not a saga for the age of Obama, I don't know what is.
--Timothy B. Tyson, Duke University, author of Radio Free Dixie and Blood Done Sign My Name

Sunday, July 15, 2007

NYTimes: School Diversity Based on Income Segregates Some

Following the recent anti-integration decision by the Supreme Court many school districts will be moving toward plans that emphasize economic diversity over racial diversity. The NYTimes ran an interesting piece about these plans. The result? Increased re-segregation. From the article:

"San Francisco began considering factors like family income, instead of race, in school assignments when it modified a court-ordered desegregation plan in response to a lawsuit. But school officials have found that the 55,000-student city school district, with Chinese the dominant ethnic group followed by Hispanics, blacks and whites, is resegregrating."

"The number of schools where students of a single racial or ethnic group make up 60 percent or more of the population in at least one grade is increasing sharply. In 2005-06, about 50 schools were segregated using that standard as measured by a court-appointed monitor. That was up from 30 schools in the 2001-02 school year, the year before the change, according to court filings."

To read the full report, go to:

NYTimes: School Diversity Based on Income Segregates Some

4 comments:

PhilJuly 15, 2007 at 11:11 AM
It's worrying to see that segregation is on the rise, seems like so much progress is slowly being pissed away. But is this really necessary..?

To achieve a balance of low- and middle-income children, the district encourages and sometimes requires students to attend schools far from home.

Imagine your child gets a letter from the principal, "Sorry, your kid can't attend here any more. There's a school 30 miles away in desperate need of white children to keep an adequate balance." Seems kinda silly.

Maybe it's not school segregation that's the problem but rather housing segregation? Maybe the government should focus more on diversifying housing? Here in Finland the cities do a very good job of this, each neighborhood always has its share of lower-income public housing.
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JoeJuly 15, 2007 at 11:21 AM
I definitely admit to not being a scholar of education policy and economics, but I think that it's a dead end to argue for integration for its own sake.

I think rather than focus on integration per se, the focus needs to be on school funding. As long as US Schools are predominantly funded based on property tax, there will be inequities.

If schools were funded equitably, would "separate but equal" be a possibility?

Besides, frankly, if schools were funded equitably, I think you'd see better housing integration. In American cities, one of the primary reasons that wealthy young parents leave the city for suburbs is to provide better education for their kids.
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JoeJuly 15, 2007 at 11:24 AM
On a sidetrack, I recently watched Machuca, a movie which has to do with economic integration of schools, albeit in 1973 Chile just before the junta.
It's a good movie that deserves to be better known. The above link is to Netflix, so add it to your queue.
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AnonymousDecember 21, 2009 at 6:31 PM
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"The Selma of the North": Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee

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Sunday, July 15, 2007

NYTimes: School Diversity Based on Income Segregates Some

4 comments: