Not Yet "Free at Last": The Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement : Our Battle for School Choice

by Holt, Mikel

• ISBN13: 9781558155107
• ISBN10: 1558155104
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Ics Pr

Summary

Grade-point averages and test scores are intolerably low; dropout, suspension, and crime rates are alarmingly high. After decades of false promises and marginalization by the public school system, African-American communities around the country are demanding a solution to the education crisis. What will it take to obtain educational equality?

In this compelling book, Milwaukee Community Journal editor Mikel Holt recounts the milwaukee community's answer: empowering parents to choose their children's schools. Documenting through facts, statistics, and personal accounts the lack of real educational opportunity in Milwaukee, Holt tells what went wrong with public school system "solutions" and chronicles the hard-won battle for school choice. Along the way, Holt exposes bureaucratic corruption and media bias, chronicles the opposition of powerful players such as the teachers' union and NAACP, unravels intricate legal tangles, and explores the leadership challenges facing the African-American community.

As a parent, journalist, and a school choice activist, Holt

Author Biography

Mikel Holt is editor and associate publisher of the Milwaukee Community Journal, Wisconsin's largest-circulated African-American newspaper

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms	xv
A Personal Journey	1	(6)
Local Beginnings	7	(23)
Venturing North: Milwaukee's Black Population	8	(3)
Segregation---and a Close-Knit Community	11	(1)
A Milwaukee Education	12	(3)
The Protest Years	15	(5)
Pulling Together: Black Independent Schools	20	(5)
The Fight for Vouchers	25	(5)
What Went Wrong with the System	30	(24)
MSB Makes Its Move	31	(1)
Liberal Hypocrisy	32	(2)
Desegregation by Any Other Name	34	(3)
Desegregation and the White Community	37	(2)
Desegregation and the Black Community	39	(2)
The Save North Division Campaign	41	(4)
How Desegregation Failed Our Children	45	(3)
A Black School District?	48	(6)
Sounding the Trumpet	54	(25)
Governor Thompson's School Choice Plan	56	(4)
Polly Williams's Bill	60	(5)
Rallying the Troops	65	(2)
Marshaling Support	67	(6)
Victory!	73	(1)
Signing In	73	(3)
Further Struggles	76	(3)
In Opposition	79	(21)
Herbert Grover and the MTEA	80	(2)
Formidable Opponents: Felmers Chaney and Lauri Wynn	82	(3)
Roadblocks and Bulldozers	85	(5)
Legal Powerhouse Clint Bolick	90	(4)
The Challenges Continue	94	(3)
Overcoming Opposition	97	(3)
Pleading Our Own Cause	100	(29)
``We Can, We Will, We Must''	101	(5)
Controversy---and Consequences	106	(3)
MCJ vs. MTEA	109	(4)
A Forum for Educators	113	(1)
Friend or Foe: The White Media	114	(3)
School Choice in the News	117	(5)
Confrontations	122	(7)
Same Track, Different Trains	129	(29)
Visions of School Choice	131	(5)
Going National: Real People, Real Choices	136	(8)
A New Black Consciousness	144	(8)
Meeting the Press	152	(1)
Aid to the Cause	153	(5)
The Second Emancipation Proclamation	158	(16)
Tearing Down the Plantation Walls	158	(5)
Opening the Doors to Religious School Choice	163	(5)
Success in the Supreme Court	168	(4)
A Voice of Reason	172	(2)
Civil Rights And Wrongs	174	(28)
Liberals, Moderates, Conservatives	176	(2)
Assimilationists: The Black Left	178	(1)
Neoconservatives: The Black Right	178	(1)
Nationalists: The Black Middle	179	(3)
Tearing Down the Barriers: Desegregation	182	(1)
Positions on School Choice	183	(1)
Power Struggles: Black Left vs. Black Middle	184	(1)
Nationalist Support: Reverend Floyd Flake	185	(3)
Assimilationist Opposition: Kweisi Mfume and the NAACP	188	(8)
Financial Imperatives	196	(4)
Making Progress	200	(2)
A Manifesto for Parental School Choice: Fifteen Lessons Learned During the Struggle	202	(32)
Where Are They Now? A Political Biography	234	(13)
Walter Farrell	234	(1)
Lauri Wynn	235	(1)
Felmers Chaney and the NAACP	236	(3)
Howard Fuller	239	(1)
Brother Bob Smith	240	(1)
Zakiya Courtney	241	(1)
Polly Williams	242	(2)
Mikel Holt and the Milwaukee Community Journal	244	(2)
The School Choice Army	246	(1)
Not Yet ``Free At Last''	247	(7)
Appendix A: School Choice Chronology	254	(15)
Appendix B: School District Fails Blacks, Foils Reforms	269	(4)
Appendix C: A Note from the Publisher	273	(6)
Notes	279	(6)
Index	285	(10)
About the Author	295	(1)
About ICS	296