Before and after School Desegregation: African-American Parents' Involvement in Schools

Abstract

In this article, the author summarizes three generations of desegregation efforts since the Brown decision, with the intent to highlight parent voices. The author puts forth arguments that researchers and policymakers should turn their attention to the importance of broader sociocultural facets of desegregation. The author provides recollections from her mother, elementary school principal, and first-grade teacher showing that African-American parents did not have to be formally invited to participate in their children's education before school desegregation. The author also gives her own recollections of PTA meetings, fundraising activities, social gatherings, and visits to her classroom by her mother. She describes the efforts since desegregation to invite African-American parents to become involved in school affairs. She suggests that educators must examine whether African-American parents feel invited or uninvited.