Daniel Kiel is a professor at the The University of Memphis' Cecil
C. Humphreys School of Law. Pierre Kimsey sits down with Daniel to talk
about his latest documentary film project, The Memphis 13, a look at the
desegregation of Memphis City Schools fifty years ago, featuring
interviews with all 13 pioneering families and other key individuals.
February 17, 2012
February 13, 2012
Atlantic: In Memphis Classrooms, the Ghost of Segregation Lingers
Samantha Crawford, an 18-year-old high-school senior, doesn't
like to use the word "ghetto" to describe her neighborhood in the center of
Memphis, Tennessee, but she can't think of a better one. In Binghampton, people
drink and hang out. They are transient, moving from apartment to apartment and
job to job. Many don't work at all. Samantha speculates that few have finished
college, or even high school.
In the past two years, though, Samantha has begun to look at her neighborhood as an inspiration. "It's not about where I stay, or wherever I come from, but what I'm going to make of it," she says.
Samantha once earned only Bs and Cs. Now, she makes straight As. She had dreamed of college, but wasn't sure how she'd get there. Now, she's feeling overwhelmed by the choices available to her. In the past few months, she received five college acceptance letters, along with a scholarship to a local community college.
Read the full article from the Atlantic here.
In the past two years, though, Samantha has begun to look at her neighborhood as an inspiration. "It's not about where I stay, or wherever I come from, but what I'm going to make of it," she says.
Samantha once earned only Bs and Cs. Now, she makes straight As. She had dreamed of college, but wasn't sure how she'd get there. Now, she's feeling overwhelmed by the choices available to her. In the past few months, she received five college acceptance letters, along with a scholarship to a local community college.
Read the full article from the Atlantic here.
November 05, 2011
NY Times: Merger of Memphis and County School Districts Revives Race and Class Challenges
When thousands of white students abandoned the Memphis schools 38 years
ago rather than attend classes with blacks under a desegregation plan
fueled by busing, Joseph A. Clayton went with them. He quit his job as a
public school principal to head an all-white private school and later
won election to the board of the mostly white suburban district next
door.
Read the full article here.
Now, as the overwhelmingly black Memphis school district is being
dissolved into the majority-white Shelby County schools, Mr. Clayton is
on the new combined 23-member school board overseeing the marriage. And
he warns that the pattern of white flight could repeat itself, with the
suburban towns trying to secede and start their own districts.
“There’s the same element of fear,” said Mr. Clayton, 79. “In the 1970s,
it was a physical, personal fear. Today the fear is about the academic
decline of the Shelby schools.”
“As far as racial trust goes,” Mr. Clayton, who is white, added, “I don’t think we’ve improved much since the 1970s.”
Read the full article here.
August 01, 2011
A Memphis Dilemma
A Memphis Dilemma: A Half-Century of Education in Memphis and Shelby County from Desegregation to Consolidation
Abstract: On May 17, 1954, the day that the Supreme Court handed down Brown v. Board of Education, essentially four separate school systems existed within the borders of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis City Schools (MCS) served students within the city limits, and Shelby County Schools (SCS) served the balance of students in the county; within each system were white schools and black schools. The next several decades saw the two districts grapple with implementation of the Supreme Court mandate to remove the vestiges of segregation from public education.
By 2010, both districts had achieved unitary status, freeing them from court supervision and adherence to judicially approved desegregation plans. However, there remained a sense in the community that public education remained very much separate - and that there was a continued racial component to that separation. Indeed, the demographics of the two districts supported this perception. Of the 100,000 students in MCS, nearly 90% were African American. Meanwhile, the majority of the county’s white students were learning in SCS. Coupling these demographic differences with the fact that the county schools performed better educationally, on average, by state accountability standards and the claims of separate, unequal schooling no different than what was confronted in Brown seemed even more legitimate.
This article appeared in the University of Memphis Law Review. The full article is available here.
Abstract: On May 17, 1954, the day that the Supreme Court handed down Brown v. Board of Education, essentially four separate school systems existed within the borders of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis City Schools (MCS) served students within the city limits, and Shelby County Schools (SCS) served the balance of students in the county; within each system were white schools and black schools. The next several decades saw the two districts grapple with implementation of the Supreme Court mandate to remove the vestiges of segregation from public education.
By 2010, both districts had achieved unitary status, freeing them from court supervision and adherence to judicially approved desegregation plans. However, there remained a sense in the community that public education remained very much separate - and that there was a continued racial component to that separation. Indeed, the demographics of the two districts supported this perception. Of the 100,000 students in MCS, nearly 90% were African American. Meanwhile, the majority of the county’s white students were learning in SCS. Coupling these demographic differences with the fact that the county schools performed better educationally, on average, by state accountability standards and the claims of separate, unequal schooling no different than what was confronted in Brown seemed even more legitimate.
This article appeared in the University of Memphis Law Review. The full article is available here.
July 06, 2011
An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure
An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure:
Abstract: Written as an invited response to Prof. Richard Sander’s “Class in American Legal Education,” this piece argues that the debate about affirmative action in higher education has overemphasized the admissions process without focusing a sufficient amount of energy on addressing longer-term strategies that would make controversial admissions interventions unnecessary.
This essay appeared in the Denver Law Review. The full article is available here. Links to the other articles in the volume are available here.
Abstract: Written as an invited response to Prof. Richard Sander’s “Class in American Legal Education,” this piece argues that the debate about affirmative action in higher education has overemphasized the admissions process without focusing a sufficient amount of energy on addressing longer-term strategies that would make controversial admissions interventions unnecessary.
This essay appeared in the Denver Law Review. The full article is available here. Links to the other articles in the volume are available here.
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