Brown In Baltimore: School Desegregation and the Limits of Liberalism by Howell S. Baum (review)

Abstract

Brown In Baltimore: School Desegregation and the Limits of Liberalism, by Howell S. Baum. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010, 274 pp, $24.95, paperback. In Brown In Baltimore, Baum investigates why the city's pubUc schools remained segregated after its school board immediately supported die Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education (1954). According to Baum, toe failure of school integration was caused by a desegregation policy, created by an all- White school board, called "free choice." Free choice was formed out of the school board's "liberal ideology" of individual choice over integration and to avoid any discussion of race. As a professor of urban and regional planning at University of Maryland, College Park, Baum has written extensively on urban affairs and school reform. The first chapter examines Baltimore as a border city and how its location directly under the Mason Dixon line helped to create a culture of segregation and activism in relation to classical Uberalism. The second chapter explores a campaign led by assertive local Black leaders to end segregation in all schools or cure the unsanitary conditions in toe Black portable schools. To Baum, toe campaign forced school officials to deal wito race. The third chapter details the secret negotiations between civil rights leaders and the city school board to integrate school trade programs before toe Brown decision. A smaU number of Black students were integrated into toe printing programs in Polytechnic Institute in 1952 and toe Mergentoaler School in 1953 witoout any violence. To Baum, civil rights leaders were classical liberals in terms of individualism, who labeled historically Black high schools as "inferior" for toe purpose of integrating toeir children into White schools. The next toree chapters are the heart of Baum' s argument. The fourth chapter describes toe creation of toe free choice policy when toe school board was confronted wito implementing social engineering. Free choice gave White parents toe option to send their chUdren to segregated schools. Baum states, "The board's preference for free choice and for desegregation over integration expressed its member's liberalism" (p. 72). The fifth chapter illustrates how open enrollment over seven years led to school resegregation due to racial prejudice among White residents. Racial issues were avoided and toe physical conditions of Black schools continued to be marginalized, which illustrates how liberalism continued to play a role in politics and Ufe in Baltimore. Chapter six explores toe protests against open enrollment by twenty-eight Black and White parents and other civU rights groups. They advocated for the enforcement of fidi integration of Baltimore City public schools at toe height of toe national CivU Rights Movement. The school board reevaluated itself and attempted to promote social engineering. Baum views toe changing political toward social engineering as toe best chance to implement school integration. The next four chapters examine toe resurgence of free choice and toe difficulty of implementing school integration policy. The seventh chapter explores how school integration was challenged by White citizens and uprisings after toe assassination of Dr. King in Baltimore and otoer cities across toe nation. …