In the wake of the election results, Dr. Val and Andrew sit down to reflect on what it means for ourselves, for the Integrated Schools movement, and for the institution of public education.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

As we approach the 2024 election, we wanted to revisit a conversation with one of our favorite guests, Dr. Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. In addition to writing White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, and The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, Dr. Anderson brings a depth of knowledge about our country's ongoing struggle to become a true, multi-racial democracy that felt particularly relevant in the run-up to the election. 

At the core of her research agenda is how policy is made and unmade, how racial inequality and racism affect that process and outcome, and how those who have taken the brunt of those laws, executive orders, and directives have worked to shape, counter, undermine, reframe, and, when necessary, dismantle the legal and political edifice used to limit their rights and their humanity. With a gift for making the illegible legible, Dr. Anderson provides us with a clear eyed look at the history that has led to the widely inequitable education system we have today. And while the topic is heavy, she brings joy and laughter to the conversation in a way that can only leave you smiling through the pain.

We close the episode with some new commentary from Dr. Val and Andrew - if you remember the original episode and want to jump ahead to that, you'll find it around the 55:00 mark. 

LINKS:

• Dr. Anderson's Original Episode
• Our debrief episode discussing her original episode
• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide
• We Are Not Yet Equal – a young readers version of White Rage
• One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy
• One Person, No Vote - Young Reader's Edition
• The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.
• Eye’s Off The Prize – Dr. Anderson’s 2003 book on the shift from a fight for human rights to civil rights at the NAACP
• Charles Hamilton Houston – The first general counsel of NAACP
• Plessy v Ferguson (also, listen to our episode about the Plessy case 125 years later).
• Brown II – The implementation decision – “All deliberate speed . . .”
• Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker – listen to her episode on our podcast.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Shelby County v. Holder
• Mothers of Massive Resistance – Dr. Elizabeth McRea
• Gabriel’s Revolt
• The Sum Of Us – Heather McGhee (also, hear her episode on our podcast)
• My Grandmother’s Hands – Resmaa Menakem
• The Fisk Jubilee Singers
• Maceo Snipes

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

In the fall of 1963, in Petersburg, VA, 6 young Black girls integrated Stonewall Jackson Elementary School. In the middle of the Massive Resistance era, districts around Virginia and throughout the South were fighting desegregation tooth and nail. From physical violence to the closing of entire school districts, communities were circumventing the Brown v Board decision in whatever ways they could. In 1961, Reverend Grady W. Powell, Sr, became the pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church, located in the heart of Petersburg. With a deep commitment to civil rights, and past experience with desegregation attempts in Richmond, Rev. Powell believed it was time for Petersburg to fulfill the promise of the Brown decision. He and his wife decided to enroll their two daughters, along with 4 other children of church members, in the all White, Stonewall Jackson Elementary. Using his relationships and status in the town, Rev. Powell approached the superintendent of the schools to ask for his support. Despite his initial reticence, the superintendent eventually agreed to support the effort, and worked with the town to minimize the disruption. 

Over 60 years later, this story has rarely been told, and yet, it's an important moment in the history of the country. We're joined by one of those young children who held the weight of the movement on their small shoulders all those years ago. Reverend Powell's daughter, Dr. Sandra Powell Mitchell was entering the 4th grade in 1963, and still remembers the first day of school well. She joins us to tell her story, how it informed her life's work as an educator, and if she thinks it was all worth it. We also get to hear from her father, who, at 92, is still a powerful voice for the importance of community, the value of diversity, and the goal of truly living together. 

LINKS:

• From Morning 'til Evening: The Autobiography of Grady W Powell
• The Fauquier Times on Dr. Mitchell's Retirement
• The Progress Index on Rev. Powell's retirement
• Rev. Dr. Grady Powell on the Teachers in the Movement Podcast
• Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth - T.J. Yosso

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Janel George, a Georgetown Law professor, who explores race and justice in education, recently wrote a paper that moved us here at Integrated Schools. Called "Deny, Defund, and Divert: The Law and American Miseducation", the piece outlines historical and modern systemic educational inequalities faced by Black communities, linked to legislative actions and adaptations of White supremacy. She joins us to talk about legislative lawyering, the importance of community engagement when making public policy, and the ongoing role of systemic racism in our legal and education systems. Ms. George shares her vision for a racially just education system, and highlights the ways the battle to achieve that vision require us to understand the past and see the threads of past efforts to deny education to Black students, to defund education focused on Black students, and to divert Black educators away from eduction, in our current struggles. 

LINKS: 

• Ms. George's article Deny, Defund, and Divert: The Law and American Miseducation
• Ms. Geroge's Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic
• Chai Feldbum on Legislative Lawyering
• Derek Black - Schoolhouse Burning
• UCLA's CRT Forward Tracking Project
• Cara McClellan - Challenging Legacy Discrimination: The Persistence of School Pushout as Racial Subordination
• The 1619 Project
• Our live show from May
• Dr. Leslie Fenwick on our show
• Dr. Leslie Fenwick's Jim Crow's Pink Slip
• Dr. Elizabeth McRae on our show
• Dr. Elizabeth McRae's Mother's Of Massive Resistance

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

We're back!! We hope you had a wonderful summer! We're excited to be back in your feeds as a new school year gets underway. As we kick off season 11 of the podcast, we are recommitting to the mission and vision of Integrated Schools, and using the podcast as a platform to invite you in to the conversation. 

• Mission: Integrated Schools prepares families with racial or economic privilege to commit to integrating our children, driving new narratives about education, and advocating for justice in our public schools.
• Vision: Integrated Schools envisions a racially and socioeconomically integrated public school system where power and resources are shared equitably, humanity is valued unconditionally and all communities reap the benefits.

As we dive into new episodes for this season, we have three themes that will be guiding our conversations.

1. From Thinking to Action

• We know that changing our thoughts is important, but reach change comes from changing our actions. 

1. Deep Learning and Curiostiy

• We have to be curious about ourselves and about our community. 

1. Storytelling

• It is through storytelling that we change hearts.

You'll hear us unpack these themes throughout the conversations we'll be sharing this season. 

Contribute to our story bank! speakpipe.com/IntegratedSchools or send us an email - [email protected]

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Nineteen episodes later, Season 10 comes to an end, and we are reflecting on an incredible season. Our themes for the season were the importance of public schools, the power of storytelling, the importance of community, and stamina, and we had 19 incredible episodes going deep on all of those themes, and more. Plus, we had our first ever live show!

Thanks to everyone who makes the Integrated Schools work possible, from our Board of Directors, to our chapter and network contacts, our leadership team, and bookclub moderators, we are so grateful to all of you. Special thanks to Darci and Jennifer for helping out with transcripts for every episode, Sasha and Courtney for help with graphics, and Anna for social media promotion.

LINKS: 

• S10E9 – The Importance of Belonging with Dr. Shanette Porter
• S10E14 – Jim Crow’s Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie Fenwick
• S10E15 – Rebuilding The Black Educator Pipeline with Sharif El-Mekki
• S10E5 – Taking Just Action for Integration with Richard and Leah Rothstein
• S10E3 – There Goes the Neighborhood with Jade Adia
• S10E2 – The Demands and Promises of Integration with John Blake
• S10E10 – Parenting to Create the World We Want
• Send us a voice memo - speakpipe.com/integratedschools

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

 Dreams really do come true . . . We have wanted to do a live show for quite some time, and finally had the opportunity thanks to The National Coalition for School Diversity, The Century Foundation, and the American Institutes for Research,who invited us to facilitate their event marking the 70th anniversary of Brown v Board. Hosted at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, on the Oprah Winfrey Stage, we were honored to facilitate three panel discussions grappling with the challenges we face today in fulfilling the true promise of Brown. 

Joined by an amazing group of speakers, all deeply committed to doing integration better, we brought the nuanced, honest conversations you know from the podcast to a live audience for the first time, and hopefully not the last. From the incredible Representative Jim Clyburn, to past podcast guests, Stefan Lallinger and Matt Gonzales, to many others, we are thrilled to share excerpts from the event today. You can also watch the full program.

LINKS:

• Brown v Board at 70: Fulfilling the True Promise of School Integration - the full event video
• Speaker Bios 
• Stefan Lallinger on our show - S7E3 – Generational Work: Stefan Lallinger on Integration
• Matt Gonzales on our show - S5E12 – COVID-19: Matt Gonzales on Equity
• The Bridges Collaborative at The Century Foundation

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

 May 17th, 1954 the Supreme Court handed down its famous decision in the Brown v Board of Education of Topekacase. So much of the work of Integrated Schools is about trying to live into the promises made through that unanimous decision. On May 17th, 1973, a girl was born in Woodbridge, Virginia. That girl, Courtney Everts Mykytyn, would go on to found Integrated Schools in 2015, calling in parents and caregivers with privilege to work towards fulfilling the vision extolled by the court nineteen years to the day before she was born.

Tragically, Courtney was struck by a car and killed on Dec 29th, 2019, cutting short a life full of promise. Not before, however, she had started a movement. All of us at Integrated Schools, from the podcast team, to chapter and networkleaders, to book club facilitators, to social media managers, are here because of her vision, her heart, and her commitment to always working to know better and do better.

To mark this special day we are re-releasing one of Courtney's last episodes of the podcast, originally called "All I Want for Christmas is 3.5%". It beautifully captures her clear-eyed realism, and her unfaltering optimism. She believed that if we can call enough people in, real change is possible, and a better world can await our children, and their children. So, on this special day, we call you in to our work. How can you be part of the 3.5% of people needed to create change? What can you do to join this work? We await you with open arms.

LINKS:

• Courtney's Blog post, 3.5%, Gratitude, and Shape-Shifting Reptiles
• Dr. Erica Chenoweth's Ted Talk
• Matt Gonzales – “White Lips to White Ears”
• Dr. Elizabeth McRae on the Mother’s of Massive Resistance
• Professor Michelle Adams on Milliken v Bradley and the hope for a multi-racial democracy
• Our Brown v Board at 65 Series called "The Stories We Tell Ourselves"
• S6E8 – BvB@67 – Rucker Johnson Revisited
• S6E9 – BvB@67 – Noliwe Rooks Revisited
• S6E10 – BvB@67 – Amanda Lewis Revisited
• S6E11 – BvB@67 – David Hinojosa Revisited
• S6E12 – BvB@67- Greg and Carol Revisited
• The Hechinger Report's Series - Revisiting Brown 70 Years Later
• The Civil Rights Project - The Unfinished Battle for Integration in a Multiracial America
• Colorlines - Attacks on Public Education Threaten the Legacy of Brown

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

 In 1954’s Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with “all deliberate speed.” The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We started with a three-part series on Denver. This is our second deep dive into one of those stories, this time focusing on Charlotte, NC.

In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in Swann v Charlotte - Mecklenburg Board of Education that, among other things, student assignment policies that involved bussing kids to achieve racial balance was a legitimate remedy for districts violating the mandate of the Brown decision. Eventually embraced by the city, the decision, and the bussing plan it led to, were held up as a model for the country of how to do desegregation right. Business boomed in Charlotte, in part because of the community embrace of school desegregation. Twenty eight years later, in Capacchione v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the district court ruled that Charlotte-Mecklenburg had complied with the Swan decision "to the extent reasonably practicable", and terminated the desegregation order, declaring it a "unitary system."  Much like many other cities around the country, once the court was no longer mandating desegregation, the district began to re-segregate. Today, with nearly 75% of CMS students identifying as students of color, and massive segregation both racially and socio-economically, the district is struggling to serve all kids well.

Dr. James Ford grew up in Illinois and was bussed through a desegregation plan premised on the Swann decision. While the additional resources this provided were important, he experienced an educational environment that felt unwelcoming, and, at times, outwardly hostile. He made it his life's work to dismantle the systemic racism that caused that harm. Eventually landing in Charlotte as a teacher, he wanted to understand the history of the city and choices made by the people in power that led to him teaching in a highly segregated high school named after the superintendent who had overseen the nationally lauded desegregation plans of the 70s.

His commitment to dismantle racism through the field of education led him to create the Center for Racial Equity in Education, where he serves as the executive director, working to "serve each and every child by also making students of color central to every facet of how schools function." He joins us to share the history of Charlotte, and his current work.

You can support his important work by donating here.

LINKS:

• The Center for Racial Equity in Education - CREED
• Dr. Ford's Op-Ed on segregation
• Swann v Charlotte - Mecklenburg Board of Education
• Capacchione v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
• The Dudley Flood Center's North Carolina School Desegregation and Resegregation Timeline
• Integrated Schools' local chapters and networks
• The Legacy and Philanthropy of Anna T Jeanes
• S10E11 - Local Stories of Desegregation: Denver (Part 1)
• S10E11 - Local Stories of Desegregation: Denver (Part 2)
• S10E11 - Local Stories of Desegregation: Denver (Part 3)

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

 In 2021, 80% of teachers in our country's public schools were White, while just 6% were Black. That same year, 54% of public school students were students of color, and 15% were Black. We also know of the extensive research showing the positive impacts of Black teachers on all kids, but especially on Black kids. However, as we learned last episode from Dr. Leslie Fenwick, we lost over 100,000 Black teachers in the wake of desegregation attempt, and the Black teacher pipeline was crushed through explicit and implicit government action. In 2019, Sharif El-Mekki founded The Center for Black Educator Development to do something about it. With a commitment to the "deeply subversive act of teaching superbly", they are targeting interventions to increase the number of Black teachers so Black and other disenfranchised students can reap the full benefits of a quality public education.

Mr. El-Mekki joins us to discuss his work, and explain how it is rooted in a Black educational tradition that stretches back generations. His teaching and leading is informed by his own upbringing attending a Black freedom school in Philadelphia, his experience as a teacher and school leader, and the teacher activists who poured into him throughout his life.

LINKS:

• The Center for Black Educator Development
• Philly's 7th Ward - Mr. El-Mekki's blog
• The 8 Black Hands Podcast
• Reviving the Legacy of the Black Teacher Tradition - Mr. El-Mekki's TED Talk
• S10E14 - Jim Crow's Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie Fenwick
• Ep 5 - Interview with a Skeptic - Chris Stewart on our show
• The Nguzo Saba

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

 Seventeen years after the Brown v Board decision, in 1971, US Senator Walter Mondale chaired a number of Select Committee hearings on Equal Educational Opportunity. One of these hearings focused on what was happening to Black teachers and principals as the country begrudgingly worked to desegregate our schools. The hearing featured testimony and supplemental documentation calling attention to the vast number of Black teachers who were losing their jobs in the Southern, dual-system states. Despite Brown's promise of desegregated schools including faculty and staff in addition to students, districts across the South were finding ways to remove Black teachers and principals, rather than allowing them to teach White kids. 

The transcripts from these hearings quite literally fell into Dr. Leslie Fenwick's lap as she began a PhD program in educational policy. The stories they held matched her own lived experience. Stories of highly qualified, highly educated Black teachers who served as community leaders, and fostered a sense of belonging and empowerment among their Black students was what Dr. Fenwick and her parents and grandparents had known. And yet, as she embarked on her PhD program, these stories weren't being told. Eventually, these transcripts would form the primary evidentiary basis for her bestselling 2022 book, Jim Crow's Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership. 

She joins us to talk about the book, her journey to writing it, and what understanding this untold history means for the ongoing quest for more teachers of color. 

LINKS: 

• Jim Crow's Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership  
• Transcript for the Senate Select Committee Hearing on the loss of Black Teachers
• Dunbar High School - Washington, DC
• Sumner Academy of Arts and Science - Kansas City, MO
• The Summer of Soul documentary
• Whitey On The Moon - Gil Scott-Heron
• Sharif El-Mekki - The Center for Black Educator Development

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.