Wow! eBook
Charles H. Thompson: Policy Entrepreneur of the Civil Rights Movement
Author(s): Louis Ray (Author)
- Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (UK)
- Publication Date: 6 July 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 218 pages
- ISBN-10: 161147521X
- ISBN-13: 9781611475210
Book Description
During a period when African-American education was at the epicenter of the civil rights movement, Thompson’s Journal documented the rapid growth of educational discrimination in the South despite significant increases in public school funding, providing irrefutable evidence that racially segregated public education was inherently discriminatory, hence, unconstitutional. Between 1932 and 1954, Thompson’s editorials provided a nuanced, insider’s account of one of the most successful policy research ventures in American history: the movement to overturn racial segregation as public policy, chronicling the rise during the Depression, World War II and the postwar period of a policy community committed to expanding human rights nationally and internationally. A brilliant essayist, Thompson sought to close the gap between America’s democratic precepts and its undemocratic practices by molding public opinion favorable to a significant expansion of civil rights among scholars, policymakers and the public. An expert witness in several landmark higher education cases argued before the U. S. Supreme Court including Sipuel (1948), Sweatt (1950) and McLaurin (1950), Thompson’s editorials provided an informed, eyewitness account of African-American teachers’ pivotal role in the NAACP litigation campaign culminating in the landmark Brown et al v. Board of Education of Topeka et al (1954) desegregation ruling. This is the first, full-length study of Charles H. Thompson’s contributions to American education and the civil rights movement.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“[T]he author must be commended for his ability and willingness to convert his 405-page dissertation into a 201-page book that answers the underlying question: Was Charles H. Thompson a ‘policy entrepreneur’ of the civil rights movement during 1932-1954? The answer is a categorical and unequivocal yes! This book is a welcome addition to the collection of works by and about Thompson and should be read by those interested in the educational history of African Americans during that period as well as those interested in Charles H. Thompson and his works.” —The Journal of Negro Education
About the Author
Louis Ray is associate professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Peter Sammartino School of Education.
