Jim Crow Moves North
The Battle over Northern School Segregation, 1865–1954

Examining why any northern communities engaged in school segregation and how this was challenged.

Davison Douglas (Author)

9780521607834, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 October 2005

346 pages, 18 b/w illus. 1 colour illus.
22.7 x 16.6 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

'This is an excellently researched and detailed study of northern school desegregation campaigns over a very broad period of history.' History

A history of various efforts to desegregate northern schools during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, exploring two dominant themes. The first considers the role of law in accomplishing racial change. Most northern state legislatures enacted legislation after the Civil War that prohibited school segregation and most northern courts, when called upon, enforced that legislation. Notwithstanding this clear legal opposition to school segregation, racially separate schools flourished in much of the north until the late 1940s and early 1950s. The second theme is the ambivalence in the northern black community over the importance of school integration. Since the antebellum era, northern blacks have sharply divided over the question of whether black children would fare better in separate black schools or in racially integrated ones. These competing visions of black empowerment in the northern black community as reflected in the debate over school integration are addressed here.

1. Introduction
2. The struggle for black education in the antebellum north
3. Legislative reform: banning school segregation, 1865–90
4. The spread of northern school segregation, 1890–1940
5. Responding to the spread of northern school segregation: conflict within the black community, 1900–40
6. The democratic imperative: the campaign against northern school segregation, 1940–54
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]