CBH Talk | Noliwe Rooks and Sonya Douglass Discuss “Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children”
Noliwe Rooks is one of the most admired scholars in education today. In her new book, Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children,” she traces four generations of her own family’s educational journey to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. Rooks weaves together sociological data and cultural history in an incisive reckoning that lays the responsibility where it rightfully belongs and demonstrates that systemic educational inequality is not sustainable for a viable democracy. Join her in a conversation led by Sonya Douglass, Founding Director of the Black Education Research Center at Teachers College, for a deep dive into the prism of integration and the impact of its failure on America’s democracy.
Participants
Noliwe Rooks is the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Africana Studies, and the chair of Africana Studies at Brown University. Her work explores how race and gender both impact and are impacted by popular culture, social history, and political life in the United States. She studies the cultural and racial implications of beauty, fashion, and adornment; race, capitalism and education, and the urban politics of food and cannabis production. Rooks has received research funding from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson School among others. She is the author of five books, and a regular contributor to outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, TIME, and NPR.
Photo by Peter Goldberg
Sonya Douglass, Ed.D. is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Organization and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. She serves as Founding Director of the Black Education Research Center (BERC) which analyzes and conducts research focused on improving the educational experiences and outcomes of Black students in the U.S. and throughout the world. Her current research focuses on how executive and systems-level leaders understand and develop their capacity and capabilities to lead organizations for racial equity and social justice. She has published five books including Learning in a Burning House: Inequality, Ideology, and (Dis)integration.
