A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018"An important contribution to our understanding of how ordinary people found the strength to fight for equality for schoolchildren and their teachers."— Wall Street JournalIn the epic tradition of Eyes on the Prize and with the cultural significance of John Lewis's March trilogy, an ambitious and harrowing account of the devoted black educators who battled southern school segregation and i...

**A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018“An important contribution to our understanding of how ordinary people found the strength to fight for equality for schoolchildren and their teachers.”—Wall Street JournalIn the epic tradition of Eyes on the Prize and with the cultural significance of John Lewis's March trilogy, an ambitious and harrowing account of the devoted black educators who battled southern school segregation and inequa...

Like many black school principals, Ulysses Byas, who served the Gainesville, Georgia, school system in the 1950s and 1960s, was reverently addressed by community members as “Professor.” He kept copious notes and records throughout his career, documenting efforts to improve the education of blacks. Through conversations with Byas and access to his extensive archives on his principalship, Vanessa Siddle Walker finds that black principals were well positioned in the community to serve as cond...

African American schools in the segregated South faced enormous obstacles in educating their students. But some of these schools succeeded in providing nurturing educational environments in spite of the injustices of segregation. Vanessa Siddle Walker tells the story of one such school in rural North Carolina, the Caswell County Training School, which operated from 1934 to 1969. She focuses especially on the importance of dedicated teachers and the principal, who believed their jobs extend...

Modeled after a little known historical model and based on the research of Vanessa Siddle Walker, Living the Legacy of African American Education: A Model for University and School, describes a sustainable and authentic partnership between a university and its K-12 partners. Designed for school, district leaders, and college instructors this practical guide provides a narrative of how a group of graduate students, a professor and seven school partners planned, executed, and engaged K-12 pa...