Segregation, Desegregation, and Resegregation in Cincinnati: The Perspective of an African American Principal

Abstract

Recent research on Brown v. Board of Education has emphasized continuing disparities in the education of White and African American students. This research has used the failure of desegregation to account for persisting gaps in White and Black school funding, teacher qualifications, and student achievement. But the current focus on the failure of desegregation has overshadowed an equally significant but underreported success in the area of improving education for African American students. According to the most recent findings on student achievement, for example, the gaps between African American and White students are again narrowing, in some cases approaching zero. The present article shows that the failure of desegregation is not the only, nor is it likely to prove to be the most enduring, legacy of Brown. At the same time that desegregation was being resisted and ultimately reversed in Cincinnati, as elsewhere, Brown was inspiring an emphasis on quality education that resulted in two of the city's worst-performing Black schools’ being transformed into schools of excellence.