brown v. board of education

"In 1857, a slave sued for his freedom and lost ... The author also looks at the aftermath of the case, including the Civil War, and the great changes in the United States on the issue of slavery. Also included are questions to consider, primary source documents, and a chronology of the case"--Amazon.com.

From Connecticut schoolrooms to the Supreme Court, Donald Williams offers a compelling look at the struggle for Black equality in America. Williams reminds readers that abolitionism was the first Civil Rights Movement and that race reformers like Prudence Crandall struggled to overcome prejudice in the North as well as the South.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's unanimous Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision, Virginia's Prince Edward County refused to comply. Instead the county closed its public schools and locked the doors. The community's white leaders quickly established a private academy, commandeering supplies from the shuttered public school for their all-white classrooms. Meanwhile, Black parents had to teach their kids at home, move across county lines, or send them to live with relatives in other states. For five years the schools remained closed. Eventually they would reopen but Prince Edward Academy would not admit Black students until 1986. The author grew up in the county and in telling the story, her own family's role---no less complex and painful---comes to light.