Description
Drawing on nearly two decades of interviews with students, educators, and alumni, Pamela Grundy uses the history of a community's beloved school to tell a broader American story of education, community, democracy, and race-all while raising questions about present-day strategies for school reform.
About the Author
Historian, author, and activist Pamela Grundy lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she pursues a variety of writing, teaching, and museum projects. Her previous books include the award-winning Learning to Win: Sports, Education, and Social Change in Twentieth-Century North Carolina.
Reviews
A must-read for scholars of southern history and the history of education, and it provides a valuable window into the contemporary landscape of the politics of race and educational policy." - History of Education Quarterly
"An incredible deep dive into the true history of Charlotte's wrestle not only with integration, but with transitioning from another Jim Crow town to a New South city in which a progressive image at one one point was matched by progressive action and policy. [Grundy] also shows how easily history repeats itself when we turn our eye from uncomfortable truths." - Charlotte Observer
"Pamela Grundy's beautifully written book Color and Character is in many ways a tale not of just one school but of three, each illuminating a distinct stage in public education's 'long civil rights movement.'" - American Historical Review
"Brilliantly documents the dramatic historical arc of an all-black high school that became a model of integration in the 1970s, only to return in more recent years to a school that is once again segregated along racial lines." - Creative Loafing Charlotte
"A fine-grained depiction of life at West Charlotte, especially for the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, by drawing on over eighty oral history interviews conducted by Grundy and her students in cooperation with the University of North Carolina's Southern Oral History Project." - Historical Studies in Education
Book Information
ISBN 9781469664040
Author Pamela Grundy
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint The University of North Carolina Press
Publisher The University of North Carolina Press
Weight(grams) 333g