"Saving Our City": An Oral History of Public School Desegregation in Baltimore

• In Event: Fighting Whiteness: Race and Racism in Teaching and Teacher Education

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to illuminate perceptions held by African Americans who served on the frontline of 1950s public school desegregation in Baltimore City, MD as students, parents, and school staff. We aim to understand the pivotal historic moment of public school desegregation through oral histories collected by undergraduate education and sociology major students. These oral histories: 1) enhanced student understanding of social environment and historical events before, during and after schools were legally desegregated and 2) helped undergraduate students understand firsthand how to enact social justice pedagogies in addressing student equity gaps in urban and high needs school systems. This research has implications for teacher training, as well as for the sociology and history of education.

Authors

• Tracy R. Rone, Morgan State University

• Simone Gibson, Morgan State University

• Janet Awokoya, JTA Consulting Group