“The promise and failure,” “the rise and retreat,” the “failed social experiment”—these are terms used by scholars and pundits to characterize the lost battle for school desegregation in the South and across the nation. But, drawing on nearly 100 oral history interviews, Tracy K’Meyer uncovers an alternative story of black and white allies fighting for and defending the integration of the Louisville and Jefferson County public schools as part of a broader struggle for racial equality. By attending to the way local people remember both what went wrong in desegregation and the resulting damage especially to black students, and also what went right and the benefits to individuals and the community, K’Meyer argues, we can better understand contemporary debates over racial equality and diversity in the schools.
K’Meyer is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Louisville, where she also serves as Co-Director of the Oral History Center. Her research focuses on the history of modern U.S. social movements, most recently on the struggles for equality in education and housing. She is currently working on a book on the American Friends Service Committee. K’Meyer’s lecture, titled “Remembering School Desegregation: Oral History and the Long Struggle for Equality in Education in Louisville, KY, 1954-2015,” will be held in the University Room in Hyde Hall.
This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.