Class Action
Desegregation and Diversity in San Francisco Schools
RAND QUINN SPEAKS AT SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
A compelling history of school desegregation and activism in San Francisco
Class Action presents the first comprehensive political history of San Francisco’s long struggle over school desegregation in the wake of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. Rand Quinn illuminates the evolving relationship between jurisprudence and community-based activism and brings a deeper understanding to the multiracial politics of urban education reform.
"Class Action offers a rigorous and well-written account of school desegregation in one of America’s most important cities. Crucially, Rand Quinn traces the long trajectory of school desegregation from 1971 to 2005, revealing a nuanced portrait of how courts and multiracial communities fought for and against policy changes. This is an important and much needed book."—Matthew Delmont, author of Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation
The picture of school desegregation in the United States is often painted with broad strokes of generalization and insulated anecdotes. Its true history, however, is remarkably wide ranging. Class Action tells the story of San Francisco’s long struggle over school desegregation in the wake of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.
San Francisco’s story provides a critical chapter in the history of American school discrimination and the complicated racial politics that emerged. It was among the first large cities outside the South to face court-ordered desegregation following the Brown rulings, and it experienced the same demographic shifts that transformed other cities throughout the urban West. Rand Quinn argues that the district’s student assignment policies—including busing and other desegregative mechanisms—began as a remedy for state discrimination but transformed into a tool intended to create diversity. Drawing on extensive archival research—from court docket files to school district records—Quinn describes how this transformation was facilitated by the rise of school choice, persistent demand for neighborhood schools, evolving social and legal landscapes, and local community advocacy and activism.
Class Action is the first book to present a comprehensive political history of post-Brown school desegregation in San Francisco. Quinn illuminates the evolving relationship between jurisprudence and community-based activism and brings a deeper understanding to the multiracial politics of urban education reform. He responds to recent calls by scholars to address the connections between ideas and policy change and ultimately provides a fascinating look at race and educational opportunity, school choice, and neighborhood schools in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education.
Class Action offers a rigorous and well-written account of school desegregation in one of America’s most important cities. Crucially, Rand Quinn traces the long trajectory of school desegregation from 1971 to 2005, revealing a nuanced portrait of how courts and multiracial communities fought for and against policy changes. This is an important and much needed book.
Matthew Delmont, author of Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation
Contents
Introduction
Part I: On a Long Road to Desegregation, 1971–1983
1. How Educational Opportunity for San Francisco’s African American Students Evolved
2. Neighborhood Tensions and Crosstown Busing
3. Choosing Schools, Preserving Segregation
Part II: Desegregation and Diversity, 1983–2005
4. From Race Conscious to Race Neutral: The Multiracial Politics of Education in San Francisco
5. Creating Diverse Schools through Choice
6. The Enduring Appeal of Neighborhood Schools
Conclusion: Opportunity, Choice, and Proximity
Appendix A: Notes on Research Method and Data Sources
Appendix B: SFNAACP v. SFUSD, Opinion and Order (Consent Decree)
Appendix C: Maps
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
