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As the governor of South Carolina during the height of the civil rights movement, Robert E. McNair faced the task of leading the state through the dismantling of its pervasive Jim Crow culture. Despite the obstacles, McNair was able to navigate a moderate course away from a past dominated by an old-guard oligarchy toward a more pragmatic, inclusive, and prosperous era. South Carolina at the Brink is the first biography of this remarkable statesman as well as a history of the times in which he governed. In telling McNair’s story, Philip G. Grose recounts historic moments of epic turbulence, chronicles the development of the man himself, and maps the course of action that defined his leadership. A native of Berkeley County’s "Hell Hole Swamp," McNair was a decorated naval commander in the Philippines during World War II and then a small-town attorney, a state legislator, and lieutenant governor before serving in the state’s highest office from 1965 to1971. Each role taught him the value of tolerance and perseverance and informed the choices he made at the helm of state government. McNair’s administration will be remembered for its management of episodes of violence and conflict that marked the onset of desegregation and of protest against the war in Vietnam: the tragic shootings in Orangeburg in February 1968, the 113-day strike at the Medical College in Charleston in 1969, violence at high schools in Columbia and Lamar in 1970, and antiwar protests on the University of South Carolina campus in 1970. These events remain the most vivid memories of the period, but McNair’s lasting legacy is his remarkable ability to affect peaceful solutions and, ultimately, compliance with federal court rulings. Grose contends that it was McNair’s decisive actions and reactions to crises that steered South Carolina clear of much of the ongoing strife of neighboring states during this period and allowed the governor to achieve much improvement to the condition of the state’s education system and economy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best book I've read on national and state politics and policy during the 1960's
Absolutely incredible. A great read that I didn't want to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed reading, "South Carolina at the brink: Robert McNair and the politics of Civil Rights". The book is a must for anyone interested in the Civil Rights movement, Southern history, South Carolina history and local and state government. I hightly recommend it for anyone looking for an unbiased, fair and detailed examination of the Civil Rights movement. The book helped answer many of the questions I had about one of the most turbelent period in our nation's history. And I would add that the coverage of national politics makes the book weel suited for students of national politics and policy as well. Mr. Gorse 's detailed analysis and indepth study has resulted in an absolute gem. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

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David Cecelski chronicles one of the most sustained and successful protests of the civil rights movement—the 1968-69 school boycott in Hyde County, North Carolina. For an entire year, the county's black citizens refused to send their children to school in protest of a desegregation plan that required closing two historically black schools in their remote coastal community. Parents and students held nonviolent protests daily for five months, marched twice on the state capitol in Raleigh, and drove the Ku Klux Klan out of the county in a massive gunfight.

The threatened closing of Hyde County's black schools collided with a rich and vibrant educational heritage that had helped to sustain the black community since Reconstruction. As other southern school boards routinely closed black schools and displaced their educational leaders, Hyde County blacks began to fear that school desegregation was undermining—rather than enhancing—this legacy. This book, then, is the story of one county's extraordinary struggle for civil rights, but at the same time it explores the fight for civil rights in all of eastern North Carolina and the dismantling of black education throughout the South. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An alternative story of school desegregation
An inspiring story of a black community's struggle to save its schools! I use this book in an educational history course I teach at the university level. Students love the book and begin to think more critically about issues surrounding school desegregation as a result of reading it. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

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James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression.By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters.Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination.This conception of education andsocial order—supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials—conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and thei descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education.Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century.Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

History of Postbellum education in US
An interpenetration of the development of public education, propelled by African Americans emerging from slavery. Anderson lays a clear path in the history of education in the US. Rich data, well written, and descriptive! Good companion for Webber's book.

Sooner than promised. . .
Hi there:I was a first time user of Amazon and of this vendor.Item purchased was better than description and the delivery was 4 days earlier than promised.Way cool!Use this company with confidence!Pete

educatio 1860
This is a magnificent book. Fantastic readings and pictures that hold you to the events and give you a deeper understanding of what is going on during this time. Charts and graphs keep your perspective grounded. I highly recommend this book to anyone who interested in African American studies or to hear the truth about history.

Booker T. Washington and Industrial Education
This work does an excellent job of describing how Washington did not really want "vocational" education, but instead "industrial" education, to educate blacks for a "place" and stifle dissent. It also does a good job of describing the "softer" discrimination philosophy of the North, and contextualizing the Northern industrialists, who saw industrial education as a way to pit blacks and immigrants against each other. An excellent discussion of black education, the fights of teacher training, and uplift.

Everything We Were Not Told
This book represents a well documented work. Using primary sources, Anderson describes the heroic African American efforts to gain, through education, the participatory citizenship status which they deserved. In the process, he exposes the Caucasian American (both northern and southern) efforts to blantantly repress these education efforts and to disenfranchise African Americans of their due. History lessons on this book may be applied to our contemporary educational setting.

Anderson employs a large number of statistics and examples to support his case. The nature of the book's content requires such documentation to dispell historical myths which history textbooks commonly espouse however.

This book is an excellent read for history and education enthusists, as well as anyone else interested in opening their minds. ... Read more

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Opening its doors as Bob Jones College in College Point, Florida, in 1927, and continuing in such a role in Cleveland, Tennessee, from 1933 to 1947, the school became a university when it relocated to South Carolina in 1947. Founded by world-renowned evangelist Dr. Bob Jones Sr., the university is guided by its mission statement: Within the cultural and academic soil of liberal arts education, Bob Jones University exists to grow Christ-like character that is Scripturally-disciplined, others-serving, God-loving, Christ-proclaiming, and focused above. The 210-acre Greenville campus has a student body numbering more than 4,200 students from every state and 50 foreign countries. ... Read more

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Discusses the founding of South Carolina, its daily life in the early years, its role in the American Revolution, its political and social ideology, and its achievement of statehood. ... Read more

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The history of the modern University of South Carolina (originally chartered as South Carolina College in 1801) describes the significant changes in the state and in the character of higher education in South Carolina. World War II, the civil rights struggle, and the revolution in research and South Carolina’s economy transformed USC from a small state university in 1939, with a student body of less than 2,000 and an annual budget of $725,000, to a 1990 population of more than 25,000 and an annual budget of $454 million. Then the University was little more than a small liberal arts college; today the university is at the head of a statewide system of higher education with eight branch campuses.

Henry H. Lesesne recounts the historic transformation of USC into a modern research university, grounding that change in the context of the modernization of South Carolina and the South in general. Lesesne describes with candor and impressive research how the University of South Carolina and, indeed, all of the state's higher education system emerged from a past limited by racism and poverty and began to measure its aspirations by national educational standards. ... Read more

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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 extended well beyond the classroom, and on the community's parents, who worked hard to support the school.

According to Walker, the relationship between school and community was mutually dependent. Parents sacrificed financially to meet the school's needs, and teachers and administrators put in extra time for professional development, specialized student assistance, and home visits. The result was a school that placed the needs of African American students at the center of its mission, which was in turn shared by the community. Walker concludes that the experience of CCTS captures a segment of the history of African Americans in segregated schools that has been overlooked and that provides important context for the ongoing debate about how best to educate African American children. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Two thumbs up
This is a marvelously well-written book, easy to read, compelling personal accounts, providing an in-depth look at the socio-cultural dynamics of a segregated community from an empowering African American POV.As a yankee and a layperson, this was an introduction to the subject matter for me, and it provided a great perspective on the interplay between local politics and wider legislative actions at the national level.It tended to be a little redundant at times, but the story is so compelling, and the voices so authentic, I really did not mind.

The book focuses during the period of legalized segregation
Their Highest Potential, written by Vanessa Siddle Walker,is an extensively researched book specifically covering a southern African American school community in Caswell County, North Carolina until its lastyear of segregated operation ending in 1969.The book focuses during theperiod of legalized segregation of public schools and how African Americanstudents were not equally as funded compared to that of white schools. Regardless ofthe unequal funding and the poorer facilities, Walker goesfurther in detail about how the untold story of this school system inCaswell County was able to provide the means necessary for their studentsto succeed to their highest potential.Walker states, to remembersegregated schools largely by recalling only their poor resources presentsa historically incomplete picture (p. 3). Through a series of interviews,Walker incorporates vivid memories of the past to help bring to life theexistence and development of Caswell County High School. The bookbegins explaining how the environment and atmosphere of segregated schoolswas actually a good thing for black children.In segregated schools therewas no conflict of racism nor did black children recognize themselves as aminority.Within the segregated school theywere not treated like secondrate citizens, but they received the attention and education they deserved,despite the lack of resources.Through out the years the school boardreluctantly provided any materials necessary for satisfactory operation. Yet, the black community continuously in the dilemma of not havingresources and room for the growing number of people, still managed toenlighten students. Determined parents time after time lobbied for a newschool with the help from N. Longworth Dillard, the principal.Eventually,the overcrowded Rosenwald School moved to the newly built Caswell CountyTraining School in March of 1951. After years of prying,the peoplefinally had the newest and largest school in the county (p 61). Duringits time,the school became the only accredited school in the county bythe Southern Association of Schools and Colleges in 1955 and remained thatway until after desegregation (p. 8).The forming of Caswell CountyTraining School was dedicated to Dillard's perseverance but could not have been accomplished if it was not for the parental advocates.Advocates inwhich Walker calls them, were adults who took an active role in seeking thematerials needed for the children.These advocates positioned themselvesbetween the needs of the school and the lack of response from the schoolboard (p 65).Whether it was from parents donating lumber to teachersstaying after to help a student, the community made an environment thatproduced achievement.With this unified effort, black children receivedthe education they deserved despite the hardships of having less thanadequate supplies.In particular,this school system was the ideallearning institution where the principal, teachers, parents, and studentsall worked together to achieve common goals ... Read more

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John Wheeler Moore (1833-1906) was an American author and scholar. He studied law at home and in 1855 he was admitted to the Bar. When the war broke out, he served in the Confederate Army as Major of the Third North Carolina Battalion. His works include: School History of North Carolina: From 1584 to 1879 (1879), The Heirs of St. Kilda (1881) and School History of North Carolina: From 1584 to the Present Time (1882). ... Read more

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" William Louis Poteat (1856-1938), the son of a conservative Baptist slaveholder, became one of the most outspoken southern liberals during his lifetime. He was a rarity in the South for openly teaching evolution beginning in the 1880s, and during his tenure as president of Wake Forest College (1905-1927) his advocacy of social Christianity stood in stark contrast to the zeal for practical training that swept through the New South's state universities. Exceptionally frank in his support of evolution, Poteat believed it represented God at work in nature. Despite repeated attacks in the early 1920s, Poteat stood his ground on this issue while a number of other professors at southern colleges were dismissed for teaching evolution. One of the few Baptists who stressed the social duties of Christians, Poteat led numerous campaigns during the Progressive era for reform on such issues as public education, child labor, race relations, and care of the mentally ill. His convictions were grounded in a respect for high culture and learning, a belief in the need for leadership, and a deep-seated faith in God. Poteat also embodied the struggle with the intellectual compromises that tortured contemporary social critics in the South. Though he took a liberal position on numerous issues, he was a staunch advocate for prohibition and became a strong supporter of eugenics, a position he adopted after following his beliefs in a natural hierarchy and absolute moral order to their ultimate conclusion. Randal Hall's revisionist biography presents a nuanced portrait of Poteat, shedding new light on southern intellectual life, religious development, higher education, and politics in the region during his lifetime.

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This work is a biography of Martha Schofield, a Quaker and Abolitionist who devoted her lifetime to the education of Southern blacks. ... Read more

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Schooling the New South deftly combines social and political history, gender studies, and African American history into a story of educational reform. James Leloudis recreates North Carolina's classrooms as they existed at the turn of the century and explores the wide-ranging social and psychological implications of the transition from old-fashioned common schools to modern graded schools. He argues that this critical change in methods of instruction both reflected and guided the transformation of the American South. According to Leloudis, architects of the New South embraced the public school as an institution capable of remodeling their world according to the principles of free labor and market exchange. By altering habits of learning, they hoped to instill in students a vision of life that valued individual ambition and enterprise above the familiar relations of family, church, and community. Their efforts eventually created both a social and a pedagogical revolution, says Leloudis. Public schools became what they are today--the primary institution responsible for the socialization of children and therefore the principal battleground for society's conflicts over race, class, and gender. ... Read more

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Confronting a reality that many policy makers would prefer to ignore, contributors to this volume offer the latest information on the trend toward the racial and socioeconomic resegregation of southern schools. In the region that has achieved more widespread public school integration than any other since 1970, resegregation, combined with resource inequities and the current "accountability movement," is now bringing public education in the South to a critical crossroads.

In thirteen essays, leading thinkers in the field of race and public education present not only the latest data and statistics on the trend toward resegregation but also legal and policy analysis of why these trends are accelerating, how they are harmful, and what can be done to counter them. What's at stake is the quality of education available to both white and nonwhite students, they argue. This volume will help educators, policy makers, and concerned citizens begin a much-needed dialogue about how America can best educate its increasingly multiethnic student population in the twenty-first century. ... Read more

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In this provocative appraisal of desegregation in South Carolina, R. Scott Baker contends that half a century after the Brown decision we still know surprisingly little about the new system of public education that replaced segregated caste arrangements in the South. Much has been written about the most dramatic battles for black access to southern schools, but Baker examines the rational and durable evasions that authorities institutionalized in response to African American demands for educational opportunity.

A case study of southern evasions, Paradoxes of Desegregation: African American Struggles for Educational Equity in Charleston, South Carolina, 1926–1972 documents the new educational order that grew out of decades of conflict between African American civil rights activists and South Carolina’s political leadership. Baker expands the conventional scholarly perspective, which has focused almost exclusively on the NAACP, and explores activism on a local level to desegregate schools, colleges, and universities. During the 1940s, Baker shows, a combination of black activism and NAACP litigation forced state officials to increase funding for black education. This early phase of the struggle in turn accelerated the development of institutions that cultivated a new generation of grass roots leaders.

Challenging Michael J. Klarman’s backlash thesis, Baker demonstrates that white resistance to integration did not commence or crystallize after Brown. Instead, beginning in the 1940s, authorities in South Carolina institutionalized an exclusionary system of standardized testing that, according to Baker, exploited African Americans’ educational disadvantages, limited access to white schools, and confined black South Carolinians to separate institutions. As massive resistance to desegregation collapsed in the late 1950s, officials in other southern states followed South Carolina’s lead, adopting testing policies that continue to govern the region’s educational system.

Paradoxes of Desegregation brings much needed historical perspective to contemporary debates about the landmark federal education law, No Child Left Behind. Baker analyzes decades of historical evidence related to high-stakes testing and concludes that desegregation, while a triumph for advantaged blacks, has paradoxically been a tragedy for most African Americans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Inspirational and deeply troubling
The title and seemingly narrow focus (and, indeed, the introduction) of this book might make it seem like a study suited only for academics. However, it most clearly is not.What is most remarkable about this book is how Baker paints portraits of the many, many ordinary (yet extraordinary) African-American individuals who were truly the prime movers in the struggle for educational opportunity in Charleston. The stories of these individuals and the durable obstacles they faced in gaining access to the most basic educational rights are both inspirational and deeply troubling.

In the course of the book, Baker also lays bare the way in which the white establishment of Charleston fought in every manner possible to insure that blacks would not be educated with whites and then, when it lost that battle, did everything in its power to insure that few blacks would "enjoy" that right. Baker rightly raises, but does not answer, the question of whether a strategy of dispensing with the hope for integration and instead creating well-funded black institutions might have, in the long run, better served the African-American community of Charleston.

Equally interesting and equally disturbing is the book's argument that the genesis and use of standardized testing--so much a part of the educational landscape today--was rooted in an a conscious attempt on the part of the white establishment to deny access to equal pay for black teachers and equal educational opportunity for African American students.

Anyone interested in issues related to the history of African-American education, equity in education, or testing--be it of teachers or students--would be wise to read this book. ... Read more

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Imagery of Identity in South African Education examines the role that images embedded in the language and discourses of colonialism and apartheid have played in shaping diverse and conflicting identities in South Africa. It explores images and modes of discursive representation in South African education, and the associated struggles for constitution and hegemony of group identities over years. Images should be understood in the context of "the struggle in words and by words," in the sense that images and represntations of group identities are not neutral intellectual activity. They are action and practice with profound implications for the affirmation of desire, power and interests within society. Cross shows how the question of group identity has dominated the history of intellectual and cultural production in South Africa, particularly within the educational field. ... Read more