Managerial Racism and the Grand Rapids Public Schools, 1968–Present

• In Event: The Administrative State of Education in the 20th Century

Abstract

Examining the postwar period, historian Todd Robinson asserts that Grand Rapids tells an important story of managerial racism as it relates to how the “American Right impeded protest politics at the local level in numerous northern communities.” Thus, the archival research (in the Special Collections & University Archives GVSU) presented in this paper illuminates the ways in which this impact continued into the 1970s and 1980s. Indeed, there is not only evidence of managerial racism, but the analysis offers a more contemporaneous view, which will serve as context for a broader historical study on the city’s school district since 1968. I present three themes from the archives that extend what managerial racism is over the turn of the 21st century.

Author

• Leanne Kang, Grand Valley State University
  Presenting Author