Post-Slavery? Post-Segregation? Post Racial? A History of the Impact of Slavery, Segregation, and Racism on the Education of African Americans (Reprinted from NSSE Yearbook, vol 114, pgs 53-74, 2015)

America is not, and has never been, in a post-racial era. Race and racism have been evolving ever-present features of the American landscape since the founding of the first colonies in the 1600s. No matter how many pundits declare the end of race and racism with the election and reelection of President Barack Hussein Obama, the ideologies and practices of both are alive and well. Exceptional events, such as the election of the first African American president, do not upend the long-term, cumulative intergenerational, structural, and institutional realities caused by race and racism. At a time of euphoria and triumphalism over the election of President Obama and of commemorations of the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and the 50th anniversaries of the March on Washington (1963), the Civil Rights Act (1964), Freedom Summer (1964), and the Voting Rights Act (1965), it is understandable how the average American can say with some degree of confidence and satisfaction that America has entered a post-racial era. Each event was a watershed moment in American history and forced the nation to confront its worst practices slavery, segregation, and racism and implement solutions to these historic wrongs.