"I'm Usually the Only Black in My Class": The Human and Social Costs of Within-School Segregation

Authors

Carla O'Connor, University of Michigan

Abstract

The work that has focused on within-school segregation has been most concerned with how this phenomenon limits the educational opportunities and might incur a psychological toll on the mass of Black students who find themselves relegated to lower-ability classrooms in integrated schools. This Article, however, allows us to begin to examine the other side of the coin. It reports on how within-school segregation practices create psychological, social, and educational pressures for those few Black students who have escaped enrollment in the least rigorous courses in their school. More precisely, the Article offers insight into how high achieving Black students in one integrated high school (referred to as Hillside) struggle with being, in most cases, the only Black student in their Advanced Placement courses. Before reporting on the experiences of these high achieving students in Part IV of this Article, Part I provides a brief review of the research literature on desegregation. The review will highlight the degree to which within-school segregation has been featured as a part of this body of work. In Parts II and III, the author then situates these high achievers within the logic of the larger study of which they were a part. Finally, in Part V, the Article concludes with a discussion of how these findings are relevant to the "the hearts and minds" of White Americans and the prospect of creating a more equitable society.

Recommended Citation

Carla O'Connor, "I'm Usually the Only Black in My Class": The Human and Social Costs of Within-School Segregation, 8 Mich. J. Race & L. 221 (2002).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol8/iss1/6