{"product_id":"the-dream-long-deferred-frye-gaillard-9781570036453","title":"The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fifty-year history of one community's battles with race in public education\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Dream Long Deferred\u003c\/i\u003e tells the fifty-year story of the landmark struggle for desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the present state of the city's public school system. Award-winning writer Frye Gaillard, who covered school integration for the \u003ci\u003eCharlotte Observer, \u003c\/i\u003e updates his earlier 1988 and 1999 editions of this work to examine the difficult circumstances of the present day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the struggle to desegregate Charlotte began in the 1950s, the city was much like many other New South cities. But unlike peer communities that would resist federal rulings, Charlotte chose to begin voluntary desegregation of its schools in 1957. Over the next decade it made consistent, if slow, progress toward greater integration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe glacial pace of change frustrated Charlotte's black citizens, prompting them to file lawsuits in federal court to seek nothing less than complete integration. When the U.S. District Court in 1969, and subsequently the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971, upheld that demand in the landmark \u003ci\u003eSwann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg\u003c\/i\u003e decision, Charlotte became the national test case for busing. Though the transition was not always peaceful, within five years Charlotte was a model of successful integration. North Carolinians of all races joined in public and private initiatives to make desegregation work and garnered national recognition for their achievement. Based on the favorable results, a powerful consensus developed in Charlotte that desegregation was morally right and educational beneficial. But that opinion was not to last.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharlotte's population grew rapidly in the 1990s, and many new arrivals were weary of the status of the public school system. In 1999 a group of white citizens reopened the case to push for a return to neighborhood schools. A federal judge sided with them, finding that the plans initiated in the 1971 ruling were both unnecessary and unconstitutional because they were race-based. Charlotte's journey had come full circle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eToday, Gaillard explains, Charlotte's schools are becoming segregated once more--this time along both economic and racial lines. A growing number of white students are either leaving the public school system for private institutions or converging on a few exceptional schools in affluent communities. This exodus from neighborhood schools has put the future of the city's public school system in jeopardy once more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this new edition of \u003ci\u003eThe Dream Long Deferred, \u003c\/i\u003e Gaillard chronicles the span of Charlotte's five-decade struggle with race in education to remind us that the national dilemma of equal educational opportunity remains unsettled. Balanced in his treatment of all sides, Gaillard gives the issue a human face so that historians, educators, and ordinary citizens can better glean understanding from the triumph and tragedy of one American community.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Frye Gaillard\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1570036454\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781570036453\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of South Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/26\/2006\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.06lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.24h x 6.36w x 0.82d","brand":"Frye Gaillard","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46838324560127,"sku":"9781570036453","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e592757b-022c-40bb-946e-ea2adca98e9a.jpg?v=1746589475","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-dream-long-deferred-frye-gaillard-9781570036453","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}