Integrated

How American Schools Failed Black Children

By: Noliwe Rooks

Narrated by: Noliwe Rooks

A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author’s family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice

"Rooks deftly sketches this lamentable, sobering history."—The Atlantic

On May 17, 1954 the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Heralded as a massive victory for civil rights, the decision's goal was to give Black children equitable access to educational opportunities and clear a path to a better future. Yet in the years following the ruling, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods were shuttered or saw their funding dwindle, Black educators were fired en masse, and Black children faced discrimination and violence from their white peers as they joined resource-rich schools that were ill-prepared for the influx of new students.

Award-winning interdisciplinary scholar of education and Black history Noliwe Rooks weaves together sociological data and cultural history to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. She tells the story of her grandparents, who were among the thousands of Black teachers fired following the Brown decision; her father, who was traumatized by his experiences at an almost exclusively-white school; her own experiences moving from a flourishing, racially diverse school to an underserved inner-city one; and finally her son and his Black peers, who over half-century after Brown still struggle with hostility and prejudice from white teachers and students alike. She also shows how present-day discrimination lawsuits directly stem from the mistakes made during integration.

At once assiduously researched and deeply engaging, Integrated tells the story of how education has remained both a tool for community progress and a seemingly inscrutable cultural puzzle. Rooks' deft hand turns the story of integration's past and future on it's head, and shows how we may better understand and support generations of students to come.

©2025 Noliwe Rooks (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Integrated is a powerful, heartbreaking ode to the sustained determination of Black parents and their children to access quality education only to have that quest thwarted at every turn by governors, white parents, and judges. The personal and societal consequences are devastating. . . . Through memoir, data, studies, and histories, Rooks lays the responsibility where it rightfully belongs and demonstrates that systemic educational inequality is not sustainable for a viable democracy."—Carol Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide

"An indispensable and brilliantly crafted examination of the impact of integration on Black children and the broader trajectory of America’s democracy. Rooks is one of the most admired scholars in education today, and her writing style is nothing short of magical. . . . With so much uncertainty facing education today, Integrated is a book that must find its way into the hands of every teacher, parent, and high school student, as it reminds us that the failures of the past do not have to become the permanent reality of our future."—Bettina Love, New York Times bestselling author of Punished for Dreaming

"This illuminating study . . . is a paradigm-shifting reassessment of a milestone of the civil rights movement."—Publishers Weekly (starred)