How is it that, half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones? The author studies two schools in Richmon, Va. one in the city and one in the suburbs. Ryan shows how court rulings in the 1970's that limited the scope of desegregation laid the groundwork for the sharp dispairities that persist to this day. [BOOK JACKET].

Appendix II contains tables and statistics on segregation and race and education.

"Since 1896, in the landmark outcome of Plessy v. Ferguson, the doctrine of "separate but equal" had been considered acceptable under the United States Constitution. African American and white populations were thus segregated, attending different schools, living in different neighborhoods, and even drinking from different water fountains -- so long as the separated facilities were deemed of comparable quality. However, as African Americans found themselves...