Uncovering the Black Geographic: The Politics of Charter Expansion in the Southern City

• In Event: Challenging Structural Racism: Ecologies of Communities and Educational Policies

Abstract

Historical analyses illuminate the ways school, housing, and city policies converged to construct racially isolated cities and suburbs in the post-World War II era (Erickson, 2016). In this study, the author explores contemporary relationships such as the the growth of charters, subprime mortgages, and county secession in a majority Black city in the U.S. South. Bridging descriptive geographic data with document analysis and interviews with Black residents navigating the school choice terrain, this study illuminates how race, place, and political economy shape charter growth. Findings demonstrate the complexity of intra-racial politics of charters within Black communities, while situating fractures in the context of convergences of school, housing, and city policies that (re) configure contemporary segregation.

Author

• Rachel Williams, University of California - Berkeley