Without a Prayer - (North American Religions) by Leslie Beth Ribovich (Paperback)

About the Book

"Though many see religion and race as separate public school issues, Ribovich reframes religion's role in twentieth-century American public education by using New York City as a window into how religion undergirded school policies and practices on race before and after school prayer and Bible-reading became unconstitutional"--

Book Synopsis

Reframes religion's role in twentieth-century American public education

The processes of secularization and desegregation were among the two most radical transformations of the American public school system in all its history. Many regard the 1962 and 1963 US Supreme Court rulings against school prayer and Bible-reading as the end of religion in public schools. Likewise, the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case is seen as the dawn of school racial equality. Yet, these two major twentieth-century American educational movements are often perceived as having no bearing on one another.

Without a Prayer redefines secularization and desegregation as intrinsically linked. Using New York City as a window into a national story, the volume argues that these rulings failed to successfully remove religion from public schools, because it was worked into the foundation of the public education structure, especially how public schools treated race and moral formation. Moreover, even public schools that were not legally segregated nonetheless remained racially segregated in part because public schools rooted moral lessons in an invented tradition--Judeo-Christianity--and in whiteness.

The book illuminates how both secularization and desegregation took the form of inculcating students into white Christian norms as part of their project of shaping them into citizens. Schools and religious and civic constituents worked together to promote programs such as juvenile delinquency prevention, moral and spiritual values curricula, and racial integration advocacy. At the same time, religiously and racially diverse community members drew on, resisted, and reimagined public school morality.

Drawing on research from a number of archival repositories, newspaper and legal databases, and visual and material culture, Without a Prayer shows how religion and racial discrimination were woven into the very fabric of public schools, continuing to inform public education's everyday practices even after the Supreme Court rulings.

Review Quotes

"An engaging, well-resourced perspective on the interplay between religion/secularity and race/color-blindness... exploring the fraught intersection of education, race, and religion in the United States."--Robert O. Smith "Teachers College Record"

"Are we still governed by a white Judeo-Christian ethos that is challenged--but never overcome--by citizens who stand outside of it? ... I'm grateful to Leslie Ribovich for asking the question."--Jonathan Zimmerman "Journal of Church and State"

"Insightful, important, and well-written, Without a Prayer will be of interest to scholars of American religious history, law and religion, religion and race, and secularism studies--the subfields in which it most directly intervenes. But I hope K-12 educators read it, too, along with judges, legislators, and government officials... Reminding us of this power we have is one of the great virtues of Ribovich's book."-- "Reading Religion"

"Without a Prayer provides useful historical background for understanding such apparently perennial issues as racial inequity and the contested place of religion in state schools."-- "Journal of Contemporary Religion"

"Deeply researched and rich in detail ... an insightful work that challenges readers to rethink the assumed separation of church and state in American public education."-- "Social Forces"

About the Author

Leslie Ribovich is Director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Public Policy & Law at Trinity College.