Audacious Agitation - by Vincent D Willis (Paperback)

About the Book

"In the decade after the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board decision, it became clear to students, parents, and community members alike that court cases were insufficient in the pursuit of educational justice. This book explores what made it difficult for educational equality to become obtainable after the Brown decision as well as the resilience and activism of younger Black students who sought to enforce equality-even when the government could not. The 1954 ruling enabled public schools to reach a degree of desegregation but did not enable them to become "the learning institutions they could have become" due to the actions of white officials and local white communities who construed Black youth's articulation of educational redress as "adversarial" instead of as a "communal enterprise." Importantly, Audacious Agitation does not portray Black youth as objects of study but rather highlights their powerful agency in increasing opportunity for themselves through the educational system"--

Book Synopsis

In the decade after the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board decision, it became clear to students, parents, and community members alike that court cases were insufficient in the pursuit of educational justice. This book explores what made it difficult for educational equality to become obtainable after the Brown decision as well as the resilience and activism of younger Black students who sought to enforce equality--even when the government could not. The 1954 ruling enabled public schools to reach a degree of desegregation but did not enable them to become "the learning institutions they could have become" due to the actions of white officials and local white communities who construed Black youth's articulation of educational redress as "adversarial" instead of as a "communal enterprise." Importantly, Audacious Agitation does not portray Black youth as objects of study but rather highlights their powerful agency in increasing opportunity for themselves through the educational system.

Review Quotes

A history of the Black student activists who challenged inequality in Georgia's schools. . . . A fresh investigation of systemic racism.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author

VINCENT WILLIS is an assistant professor of gender and race studies at the University of Alabama.