When traditionally white public schools in the South became sites of
massive resistance in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of
Education decision, numerous white students exited the public system
altogether, with parents choosing homeschooling or private
segregationist academies. But some historically white elite private
schools opted to desegregate. The black students that attended these
schools courageously navigated institutional and interpersonal racism
but ultimately emerged as upwardly mobile leaders. Transforming the
Elite tells this story. Focusing on the experiences of the first black
students to desegregate Atlanta's well-known The Westminster Schools and
national efforts to diversify private schools, Michelle A. Purdy
combines social history with policy analysis in a dynamic narrative that
expertly re-creates this overlooked history.
Through gripping oral histories and rich archival research, this book
showcases educational changes for black southerners during the civil
rights movement including the political tensions confronted, struggles
faced, and school cultures transformed during private school
desegregation. This history foreshadows contemporary complexities at the
heart of the black community's mixed feelings about charter schools,
school choice, and education reform.