Evolving cross-group relationships

This paper examines students' evolving cross-group relationships in a comprehensive high school in Baltimore County, Maryland, USA, between 1950 and 2000. The findings of this research, situated at the intersections of two lenses of inquiry: oral historical analysis and critical studies, uncover both the power of students accustomed to integrated spaces to break social barriers in spite of institutionally entrenched segregating norms; and the power of institutional norms to segregate students when major demographic shifts bring into institutional parameters youth unaccustomed to integrated spaces and diversity. Keywords: cross-group relationshipsimmigrant studentsoral historiesintegration Notes 1. See Urban and Wagoner (Citation2000). Also refer to Anderson and Byrne (Citation2004) for discussions regarding the legacy of Brown. 2. Anderson and Byrne, The Unfinished Agenda of Brown v. Board of Education, 130. 3. Scholars have suggested that Brown was 'a textbook example of judicial activism.' See Khalil Chism, 'A documentary history of Brown,' in The Unfinished Agenda of Brown v. Board of Education, 8. 4. Pre-Brown school desegregation cases had been petitioned not only by African-American populations but also by Latino populations, in particular by Mexican-Americans in the Southwest. See MacDonald (Citation2004). Brown v. Board of Education however became the galvanizing force that propelled African-American civil rights movements, which in turn created a domino effect as greater numbers of minorities joined in demanding their civil rights, and the rights of their children to attend desegregated schools. Also, for reflections on Asian populations, see Hu-DeHart, 'An Asian American Perspective on Brown' in The Unfinished Agenda of Brown v. Board of Education, 108–22. Also see Marco Portales, 'A History of Latino Segregation Lawsuits' in The Unfinished Agenda of Brown v. Board of Education, 123–36. 5. Some of these laws include: The Civil Rights Act of 1964; Head Start as the outcome of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964; the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972; Bilingual Education Act sanctioned by the Supreme Court in 1974, and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975; the passage of the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1974. 6. 'The 1965 Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act: Repealed national origins restrictions which restricted immigration visas according to the ethnic composition of the 1920 US population. Before 1920 the United States had a very high rate of immigration. The 1965 amendment essentially returned immigration policy to the pre 1920 policy; and the 1990 Immigration Act: Permitted the entry of 150,000 more legal immigrants annually.' http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~economic/econ104/immigrat/ (January, 2006). Also see Portes and Rumbaut (Citation1996). 7. For an in depth discussion of multiculturalism as it has shaped education in the US, see Banks and McGee Banks (Citation2004). 8. Although the military has been considered, especially with the recent inclusion of women, as our most integrated institution since World War II, it is, except for drafts (which ended with the military withdrawal in 1973 from Vietnam), an all-voluntary military. 9. See Ryan (Citation2005a). 10. See Grant (Citation1988b). 11. See Portelli (Citation2005). First emphasis mine, second emphasis that of the Caroline Eick. 12. Thirty-seven alumnae and alumni of different race and socio-economic backgrounds, identified through yearbooks and alumni directories, as well as through snowball sampling, and who graduated from Miller High between 1954 and 2002 were formally interviewed in tape-recorded sessions that ranged from 1 to 2 h, and informally through follow-up calls, visits, and email communications. These alumni were chosen for their differences (gender and class just prior to 1956 desegregation; gender, class, and race following desegregation); and identified as evenly as possible across the five decades. Doors opened up for me into the African-American community when I came across a history, in the town library, written by Louis Diggs, an African-American oral historian who had collected the testimonies of members of some of the oldest African American communities in Maryland. I contacted the Caroline Eick who suggested I speak with Annie Milligan, an octogenarian senior citizen who had lived her entire life in the African American community served by Miller High. Mrs Milligan took me into her world and connected me with African American Miller High graduates. It was her trust in me, and her standing in her community, that secured my interviews with African American alumni and alumnae who attended between 1956 and the early 1980s.Through Mrs Milligan's intercession I gained invaluable insight into Miller High's black community of 1950s through 1980s, but I could not do the same for the younger generation of the 1990s. While those alumni interviewed freely agreed to give their stories away to me, the implications of my whiteness within a US reality, in conjunction with my Ph.D. candidacy in Education at the time of the research, and the power differential inherent in the production of research interviews, created in the eyes of two potential African-American narrators, graduates of the 1990s, a persona to whom they would not want to grant an interview. The agency of these two alumni is important to underscore. They refused to give away their insights and interpretations to someone whom they understood to represent an educational establishment that has failed black students. Their political statement reconstructed the power differential on their behalf. Their refusal to tell of their experiences is an historic act, reflecting historical consciousness. Their refusal is part of the meta-data that deepen and complete the history of Miller High student relationships. Thus, black youth's experiences of the 1990s come to view only indirectly, through family members of older generations.For relational histories of education – such as this one, interpreted from Miller High alumni's and alumnae's memories – no ultimate number of testimonies can be set to legitimate a social historical consciousness (over personal history). No number can be set because no exhaustive story of all possible configurations of student relationships can ever be told. It is because the 'exhaustive' will forever be out of reach in relational histories of education, that histories of whatever possible configurations must be told. They must be told because they begin our foray into the evolution and/or dissolution of intercultural, multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic, and religiously, economically, and nationally diverse educational spaces. 13. Total populations of students and distribution of student population by race/ethnicity and gender were tabulated by examining graduating pictures of students in yearbooks. Distribution of students across race and gender in extracurricular activities and clubs were also tabulated using yearbooks. For example, when averaging student participation by gender and race for student 'yearbook club,' 'newspaper club,' and 'honor society' (for yearbooks 1954, 1956, 1958, and 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, and 1968) the following proportions emerged: on average 13 white young women compared to 8 white young men served on yearbook staff and no black youth served across the two decades; on average 12 white young women compared to 5 white young men served on school newspaper staff and no black youth (only one anomaly shows up in the year 1964 when there were only 10 white young women compared to 14 white young men); on average 126 young white women compared to 78 white young men were in the honor society across the decades and no black youth. The Future Teachers of America and Future Nurses of America were consistently dominated by white women (only one white man appears in the late 1960s in Future Teachers of America, and two African American young women appear in Future Nurses of America in the mid and end of 1960s). Across the two decades women only are represented in the Future Business Leaders of America across races, the extracurricular activity that recruited young women from the commercial track preparing to become secretaries. Populated solely by males were the Future Farmers of America club and later in the 1960s, the 'chess club.' Also, young black men were enrolled in basketball, soccer and/or track, and of those most were also attending academic tracks (this could be easily corroborated with senior graduating pictures that always included students' credentials in terms of academic track attended, and involvement in sports and other extracurricular activities. Football would not show up until 1969. There are no sports pictures featuring African American young women between 1950 and 1969. They do appear in the 1970s and on. Such analyses were conducted for all the decades.Archival research was conducted in the Baltimore County Board of Education archives in Towson, Maryland, where general county school policies were examined; in the Maryland rooms of Enoch Pratt Baltimore City Public Library and of the University of Maryland College Park where census data and Maryland State Board of Education communications were examined; in the library of Miller High School where the school newspaper and archived alumni achievements and photographs were examined; and the 'historic room' of Miller Town community library where Miller High yearbooks and local community newspapers were examined. Histories and photographs of the evolving Miller High school which began as an academy in the nineteenth century and of peoples of the region, including oral histories of African American communities of the region were also identified at the Miller Town library. 14. See Palumbos (Citation1999). 15. Information gathered from discussions with Howell S. Baum who is presently working on a book entitled: How Liberalism Failed Brown: School Desegregation in Baltimore. Howell Baum is professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Maryland, College Park. 16. See Vicino (Citation2008). Between 1950 and 1970, the total population of Miller Town rose from 2077 to 14,037. In 1950, whites represented approximately 92% of the population, and blacks, roughly 8%. In 1970, as white flight intensified, percentages of whites rose to represent 97% of the population (from 1912 registered white citizens in 1950 to 13,724 in 1970) compared to the black population which while it decreased in proportion to represent approximately 3% of the total population, increased from 165 registered African Americans in 1950 to 313 in 1970. See Table 1 for census data from US Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census. 17. See works by Diggs (Citation1996, Citation1998, Citation2000). 18. For discussions of changing immigration patterns since the Immigration Act of 1965, and implications for school populations, see works by Olsen (Citation1997); and Portes and Rumbaut (Citation1996). 19. Except for the state and the county, all proper names have been replaced with pseudonyms to protect those narrators unwilling to be identified with testimonies they felt would compromise their professional and familial relationships in the community. Some narrators have agreed to reconsider release of transcripts at a later date. 20. See works by Diggs (Citation2000, Citation1996, Citation1998). 21. Alice Web (1950–1954), interview by Caroline Eick, 2 October 2003. 22. Judy Law (1950–1954), interview by Caroline Eick, 25 February 2003. 23. Alice Web (1950–1954), interview by Caroline Eick, 2 October 2003. 24. Norman Good (1956–1959), interview by Caroline Eick, 18 March 2003. 25. Ibid. 26. Annie Cole (1956–1958), interview by Caroline Eick, 11 March 2003. 27. Ibid. 28. Picture counts of freshmen and graduating seniors in yearbooks served to trace student population growth. Neither school archives nor county board of education archives hold statistics on Miller High student populations throughout the 1950s and 1960s. African American students would continue to represent roughly 3% of the student population until the eighties when their numbers would rise to represent roughly 10% of the student population. See Table 2. 29. Ibid. 30. Linda Moss (1965–1969), interview by Caroline Eick 27 January 2003. 31. Tim Whittle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 28 June 2004. 32. Teresa Randle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 9 June 2004. 33. Pat Baley (1971–1975), interview by Caroline Eick, 20 October 2003. 34. Tim Whittle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 28 June 2004. 35. Joanne Pet (1970–1974), interview by Caroline Eick, 16 October 2003. 36. Tim Whittle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 28 June 2004. 37. Ibid. 38. Jeremy Garnes (1974–1978), interview by Caroline Eick, 9 September 2003. 39. Tim Whittle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 28 June 2004. 40. David Randle (1972–1976), interview by Caroline Eick, 7 November 2003. 41. Ibid. 42. Ibid. 43. Tim Whittle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 28 June 2004. 44. Teresa Randle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 9 June 2004. 45. Tim Whittle (1977–1981), interview by Caroline Eick, 28 June 2004. 46. Betty Ames (1995–1999), interview by Caroline Eick, 19 August 2003. 47. Ivan Strasky (1998–2002), interview by Caroline Eick, 6 November 2004. 48. Exhaustion of research funds precluded collecting oral histories of the rising Latino/a population. However, Russians overwhelmingly represented the majority of immigrants at the end of the last century in Miller Town. 49. Ivan Strasky (1998–2002), interview by Caroline Eick, November 6 2004. 50. Hather Korn (1989–1993), interview by Caroline Eick, February 25 2003. 51. I borrow from Fine, Weiss, and Powell to define integration as: 'intellectual and social engagement across racial and ethnic groups.' See Fine, Weiss, and Powell (Citation1997). Thus I contrast the notion of integration to that of desegregation which refers foremost to admission policies and processes to secure laws that ensure equal representation of students across race in schools. 52. See Grant (Citation1988a). 53. See Ryan (Citation2005b). 54. Maxine Green quoted by Ramaley (Citation2005)

Acculturation · Cross-cultural · Ethnic group · Group (periodic table · Miller · Sociology · Anthropology · Higher Education Research Studies · Psychology · Ecology

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