The Illusion of Integration: Segregated Schooling and Racial Containment in Richmond, California

• In Event: Containment, Closures, and Desegregation in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Schools

Abstract

Though 1940s newspaper clippings display pictures of racially integrated classrooms in Richmond, CA, historical records tell a different story. Under mandatory civic professionalism, a belief that temporary, extreme wartime measures (e.g. integrated classrooms) were necessary for national unity, race was rendered inconsequential. It was believed that Black migrants working in shipyards would soon return South, but when they stayed, resistance to integration deepened.This paper examines the history of Richmond schools to assess the extent of integration in West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD). I argue that the city’s reputation for racial liberalism masks a deeper structural racism. WCCUSD’s institutional legacy reveals a failure to confront segregation and a system never designed to equitably meet all students’ needs.

Author

• Christina Toma, University of California - Los Angeles