Justin Murphy

In Your Children Are Very Greatly In Danger: School Segregation in Rochester, New York, Justin Murphy argues, “Rochester, like most places in the United States, has always quailed when called to confront the racial and socioeconomic segregation that underlies and perpetuates its most pressing problems, education first among them; and, further, that no lasting solution to these problems is possible until segregation is addressed” (pg. 233). Murphy begins in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century, examining the early efforts of desegregation in education and the few factories that controlled Rochester’s economy. He concludes, “As long as the struggle had been, Rochester was the first large school district in New York to fully desegregate” (pg. 39). This early success belied later struggle, however, as housing segregation worked to create a form of de facto segregation in Rochester schools, particularly in the difference between Rochester and other Monroe County school districts (pgs. 59-62).

Murphy writes of the 1960s turmoil in Rochester, “Underlying all the segregation-related tumult of the 1960s in Rochester and other northern cities, was a significant, long-unchallenged assumption about the historical record leading to school segregation. Integration foes insisted repeatedly that racial imbalance derived wholly from discrimination in housing an not al all from particular actions on the part of schools… Throughout the 1960s and beyond, the key question was not whether RCSD bore blame for racial imbalance in its schools, but how much responsibility it had to proactively overturn residential patterns in its placement procedures” (pg. 94). While proactive efforts to create more integrated schools were beneficial to Black students, white parents vociferously fought against them both in legal assaults and in physical violence (pgs. 115, 133). The pushback from white parents scuttled any attempts at meaningful, significant integration efforts.

In a hypothetical argument, Murphy discusses how a system like BOCES could be expanded to encompass the entire county, helping to distribute the work toward desegregation while better allocating resources for special education and technical training (pg. 165). While some have proposed such an idea, it never gained significant support, especially once suburban districts decided to support their local tax base and later financially gain through support of limited urban-suburban programs (pg. 196).

Murphy’s study challenges common assumptions about education in Rochester, offering a road-map for those who would take steps to desegregate and improve students’ experiences. One only hopes that sufficient parents, administrators, and politicians will realize the worth of his work and make the hard choices to secure a better future.… (plus d'informations)