Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

Vol. 34 (2014)

Starting the Bandwagon: A Historiography of African American Mothers' Leadership during Voluntary School Desegregation, 1954-1971

  • Camille M. Wilson
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21423/awlj-v34.a120
Submitted
June 16, 2017
Published
2017-06-12

Abstract

In this article, the author presents a historiography that considers the leadership that African American women, particularly
mothers, played in U.S. school desegregation. Discussion moves beyond offering a political analysis of school integration politics
that is male centered, bounded by a legalistic frame, or steeped within general discussions of the political clashes between
integrationists and segregationists to recast significant historical events through a more nuanced womanist lens. Literature is
reviewed and archival data from 1954 to 1971 are marshaled to shed light on why and how African American mothers
contributed to the school desegregation movement, particularly in Greensboro, NC. The author suggests what lessons can be
gleaned from the mothers' legacy to extend conceptualizations of transformative educational leadership.