Struggle

Hughes describes the transgenerational struggles for educational opportunities of rural northeastern Albemarle black families.

Of Course the struggle does not end with Brown and desegregation

The real people who narrate Black Hands in the Biscuits Not in the Classrooms make clear that while desegregation started the process for blacks gaining educational opportunity, it was not the end of struggle.  With desegregation, blacks lost what control they had of their education to whites, who ensured that black teachers and administrators were largely phased out of the district. This left cafeteria workers, bus drivers and custodians as the only substantial black adult presence in schools with black students comprising 20%-40% of the population.  The education that black students received at the schools was dubbed “training,” for inadequate and inequitable local and statewide employment opportunities upon graduation.  The real “education” duties were taken over at home, by the families that shared hope, struggle, and faith via NBFP.

These struggles continue, and not just in the northeastern Albemarle region of North Carolina.  Groups such as the UCLA Civil Rights Project with Dr. Gary Orfield work to expose, research, and document struggles around the country and the world.  For example, they have found that schools with larger populations of  minority and low-income students are more often identified as needing improvement.