Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger - by Justin Murphy

About the Book

"This book chronicles school desegregation in Rochester, NY. It examines in detail the Civil Rights era fight to desegregate Rochester schools and reviews the various attempts in the last fifty years at metropolitan-level solutions to Rochester's educational ills. Ultimately it brings the historical narrative to the present day, illustrating the flaws inherent in the school reform model that has dominated national education policy for nearly forty years."--

Book Synopsis

In Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger, the veteran journalist Justin Murphy argues that Rochester's educational disparities stem from historical and ongoing racial segregation. Education reform alone cannot resolve racial inequity; cities such as Rochester must first dismantle segregation.

Through interviews and documents, Murphy shows how discriminatory policies and personal prejudice shaped the region's segregated educational system. Alongside this troubling history, he highlights the fight for integration, from Frederick Douglass's advocacy in the 1850s to student activism inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in the 2010s.

Murphy illustrates how numerous failed efforts to uphold the promise of Brown v. Board of Education underline that desegregation and integration remain the best opportunities to improve educational and economic outcomes for children of color. In Rochester, that opportunity has been lost, leading to persistently poor academic results.

Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger offers both historical and contemporary analysis, showing how northern cities must confront their past to build a more equitable future.

Review Quotes

His work is a must-read for anyone interested in school integration in general and the history of school integration in Rochester, New York, in particular.

-- "New York History Journal"

Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger is one important effort to foster crucial change.

-- "The Radical Teacher"

Everyone should read Justin Murphy's Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger.

-- "Joan Coles Howard, former editor of The Frederick Douglass Voice"

Murphy's work is a must-read for anyone interested in school integration in general and the history of school integration in Rochester, New York, in particular.

-- "New York History"

About the Author

Justin Murphy is a journalist and the research and communications coordinator at Our Local History.