Jim Crow Moves North: The Battle over Northern School Segregation, 1865–1954(Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society)

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.

Table of Contents:
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.

About the Author :
Davison M. Douglas is the Arthur B. Hanson Professor of Law at the William and Mary School of Law where he teaches courses in American constitutional law and history. From 1997-2004, he served as Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law at William and Mary. Douglas received a Ph.D. in American history (1992), a law degree (1983), and master's degree in religion (1983) from Yale University. He has written several articles and books dealing with American constitutional history, including Reading, Writing, and Race: The Desegregation of the Charlotte Schools (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), Redefining Equality (Oxford University Press, 1998) (edited, with Neal Devins), and articles in the Michigan Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Texas Law Review, and the UCLA Law Review. He has lectured on American constitutional law and history at universities throughout the United States, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

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