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² For an influential statement the state of urban education in the eighties and nineties, one that accepts the proposition of urban school inferiority, see Kozol, Jonathan Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (New York: Harper, 1991), passim. On the low state of public opinion regarding big city school systems, particularly regarding perceptions of bureaucratic control, see Lewis, Dan A. and Nakagawa, Kathryn Race and Educational Reform in the American Metropolis: A Study of School Decentralization (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), Ch. 2.Google Scholar

³ For an early observation of urban-suburban differences, see Conant, James B. Slums and Suburbs: A Commentary on Schools in Metropolitan Areas (New York: McGraw Hill, 1961), passim; also see Wise, Arthus E. Rich Schools, Poor Schools: The Promise of Educational Opportunity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968) passim, and Kozol, Savage Inequalities, passim. Also see Hill, Edward W. and Rock, Heidi Marie “Race and Inner City Education” in Galster, George C. and Hill, Edward W. eds. The Metropolis in Black and White: Place, Power and Polarization (New Brunswick: Center for Urban Policy Research, 1992), 108–127. For an incisive historical treatment of these issues, see Kantor, Harvey and Brenzel, Barbara Urban Education and the ‘Truly Disadvantaged': The Historical Roots of the Contemporary Crisis” in Katz, Michael ed. The Underclass Debate: Views from History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 366–402.Google Scholar

⁴ Lefebvre, Henri The Production of Space (Nicholson-Smith, Donald, Translator) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 26.Google Scholar

⁵ The chief works expressing this viewpoint include Gottdiener, Marc The Social Production of Urban Space (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985), 125 passim; Harvey, David The Urban Experience (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), passim; and Katznelson, Ira Marxism and the City (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) passim. Also see Castells, Manuel The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977), passim. For use in a historical analysis, see Sugrue, Thomas J. “The Structures of Urban Poverty: The Reorganization of Space and Work in Three Periods of American History” in Katz, ed. The Underclass Debate, 85–117.Google Scholar

⁶ Mirel, Jeffrey The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System, Detroit, 1907–81 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993) Ch. 2; also see the discussion in Rury, John “The Changing Social Context of Urban Education: A National Perspective,” in Rury, J. L. and Cassel, F. A. (eds.), Seeds of Crisis: Public Schooling in Milwaukee since 1920 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), 10–41.Google Scholar

⁷ On changes in large American cities since the 1930's, see Teaford, Jon C. The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940–1985 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), passim, and Fox, Kenneth Metropolitan America: Urban Life and Urban Policy in the United States, 1940–1980 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1985), passim; on education in urban areas, see Borman, Katherine M. and Spring, Joel H. Schools in Central Cities: Structure and Process (New York: Longman, 1984), Ch.s 1 and 2; Hummell, Raymond C. and Nagle, John M. Urban Education in America: Problems and Prospects (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973) passim; and Havighurst, Robert J. Education in Metropolitan Areas (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1966), Ch. 4.Google Scholar

⁸ These figures are calculated from data in Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1975), Ch. A; and Idem., 1980 Census of Population, Volume 1, Characteristics of the Population, Chapter A, Number of Inhabitants, Part I, United States Summary (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1983), 227; also see Fox, Metropolitan America, 51. On the urban-suburban migration at this time and its effect, see Teaford, Jon C. The Twentieth Century American City, Second Edition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), passim; also see Jackson, Kenneth T. The Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), Ch. 12.Google Scholar

⁹ These figures are from Cutler, Irving Chicago: Metropolis of the Mid-Continent, Third Edition (Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishers, 1982), Ch. 5, and Chicago Fact Book Consortium, Area Fact Book: Chicago Metropolitan Area, 1980 (Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago, 1984), xvi, xvii; For a discussion of early trends, see Duncan, Otis Dudley and Duncan, Beverly The Negro Population of Chicago: A Study of Residential Succession (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), Ch. VIII; also see Kleppner, Paul Chicago Divided: The Making of a Black Mayor (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1985), Ch. 2; and Keating, Ann Durkin Building Chicago: Suburban Developers and the Creation of a Divided Metropolis (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1988), passim.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Fox, Metropolitan America, Ch. 2; Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, Ch. 15; Hirsch, Arnold “With or Without Jim Crow: Black Residential Segregation in the United States,“ in Hirsch, Arnold R. and Mohl, Raymond eds., Urban Policy on Twentieth Century America (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993), 65–99; and Hacker, Andrew Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile and Unequal (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992), Ch. 1.Google Scholar

¹¹ Squires, Gregory D. Bennett, Larry McCourt, Kathleen and Nyden, Phillip Chicago: Class, Race and the Response to Urban Decline (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987), Ch.s 2 and 4.Google Scholar

¹² On race in the changing structure of North American metropolitan areas, see Galster, George C. and Hill, Edward W. “Place, Power and Polarization: Introduction“ in Galster, and Hill, , eds. The Metropolis in Black and White, 1–18; for the social meaning of “urban” in the latter twentieth century, see Katz, Michael B. “The Urban ‘Underclass’ as a Metaphor of Social Transformation,“ in Katz, ed., The Underclass Debate, 3–23.Google Scholar

¹³ For changes in the 1950's, and conflicts over changing housing patterns, see Hirsch, Arnold Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983), passim. On subsequent years, see Kleppner, Chicago Divided, Chs. 2, 3 & 4; Grimshaw, William J. Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931–1991 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), Chs. 5 and 6. Also see Rivlin, Gary Fire on the Prairie: Chicago's Harold Washington and the Politics of Race (New York: Henry Holt, 1992), Ch. 1.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Chicago Tribune, The American Millstone: An Examination of the Nation's Permanent Underclass (Chicago: Chicago Tribune Publishing, 1986), Ch. 5.Google Scholar

¹⁵ On this point see Wilson, William Julius When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), Ch. 1; also see Wilson's earlier book, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), Chs. 2 and 4; and Massey, Douglas S. and Denton, Nancy A. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), Ch. 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ On the development of the Chicago Public Schools in the early twentieth century, see Hogan, John David Class and Reform: School and Society in Chicago, 1880–1930 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), Chs. 1 and 2; and Wrigley, Julia Class, Politics and Public Schools: Chicago, 1900–1950 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1982), Chs. 1 and 2. Also see Herrick, Mary The Chicago Schools: A Social and Political History (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1971), Ch. 4.Google Scholar

¹⁷ On dropouts, see Hogan, Class and Reform, Ch. 3; On corruption and its resolution, see Herrick, The Chicago Schools, Chs. 14 and 15.Google Scholar

¹⁸ For an overview of the system under Willis’ leadership in the 1950's, see Herrick, The Chicago Schools, Ch. 16. On Willis’ building campaign and growth in the system, see Wneck, Cynthia Ann “Big Ben the Builder: School Construction, 1953–66,“ (Ph.D. diss., Loyola University-Chicago, 1989), Chs. III, IV and V.Google Scholar

¹⁹ On the passage of referenda and budget growth, see Herrick, The Chicago Schools, 309–310.Google Scholar

²⁰ For a capsule portrait of Willis, his major accomplishments and personality, see Cuban, Larry Urban School Chiefs Under Fire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976) 1–8. For Willis’ somewhat rocky relationship with the press, see Thomas Foster Koerner, “Benjamin C. Willis and the Chicago Press” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1968), Introduction.Google Scholar

²¹ The quote can be found in Herrick, The Chicago Schools, p. 425. For Tyack's characterization of urban school leaders, see Tyack, David and Hansot, Elisabeth Managers of Virtue: Public School Leadership in America, 1820–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1982), Part II.Google Scholar

²² The quotes are from remarks made to the press on September 6, 1961, in the Benjamin Willis Papers, Box 3, The Paul Hanna Collection, The Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, CA (hereafter cited as “Willis Papers”). Willis was also quoted 1961 as saying that “there is no question that an elementary school which serves pupils who live in the immediate area around the school is best able to involve community and parents in a quality program of education for their children.” A little later he declared, “The life and comprehension of the child within its known and explorable neighborhood provides the emotional security required for his wholesome development.” These quotes are provided in Cuban, Urban School Chiefs Under Fire, 11.Google Scholar

²³ The quote is from “Statement on September 6, 1961 to Television Reporters and Press,” Box 3, Willis Papers. On Willis’ professed ignorance of racial composition of the Chicago Public Schools’ students and staff, see Anderson, Alan B. and Pickering, George W. Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986), 77. On Willis’ opposition to bussing and other alternatives to the neighborhood schools, see Wneck, “Big Ben the Builder,” Ch. VII.Google Scholar

²⁴ Havighurst, Robert J. The Public Schools of Chicago: A Survey for the Board of Education of the City of Chicago (Chicago: Chicago Board of Education. 1964), Ch. X. Havighurst reports the correlation between socio-economic status and achievement levels as .8. My own calculations show the relatiosnhip between race (percent black) and achievement to be slightly weaker and negative at −.72. Interestingly, socio-economic status was positively associated with college plans (.71), and negatively associated with remedial reading enrollments (−.54). Black enrollment was positively correlated with remedial reading (.86) and negatively with socio-economic status ((−.47). Clearly, race and socio-economic status worked together in Chicago's high schools to produce two quite different patterns of achievement. On current levels of achievement in Chicago schools, see The Chicago Assembly, Educational Reform for the 21st Century (Chicago: Harris Graduate School of Public Policy, 1998) 36, and the background report prepared for the Assembly by Roderick, Melissa “Educational Trends and Issues in the Region, the State and the Nation.” The Chicago Assembly report indicates that only about twenty percent of Chicago eleventh grade students scored above national medians in reading and math during the early 1990's. Roderick documents the low achievement levels in contemporary Chicago public high schools: by 1990 only about 10% of Chicago public high school students scored in the top quartile in mathematics and reading achievement on nationally normed tests (54).Google Scholar

²⁵ “De Facto Segregation in Chicago Public Schools,” The Crisis 65 (February 1958), 87–95, 126–7; Herrick, The Chicago Public Schools, pp. 310–312; Anderson, and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, Ch. 3. Chicago, of course had a long history of racial inequality in education, and this also may have contributed to heightened sensitivities on these questions. See Homel, Michael W. Down From Equality: Black Chicagoans and the Public Schools, 1920–1941 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984), passim, and Judy Jolley Mohraz, The Separate Problem: Case Studies of Black Education in the North, 1900–1930 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1979), passim.Google Scholar

²⁶ Havighurst, The Public Schools of Chicago, Ch. VII; Herrick, The Chicago Public Schools, 313. Herrick notes that these findings were upheld by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which found that the Chicago Public Schools’ policies created unfair disadvantages for black students. For a detailed account of this case, see Anderson, and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, 85–90. Also see Cuban, Urban School Chiefs Under Fire, 10.Google Scholar

²⁷ The best account of this is in Anderson and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, Ch. 3. For an overview of issues or racial inequity in Chicago's schools in the latter 1950's and sixties, see William A. Vrame, “A History of School Desegregation in Chicago since 1954” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1971), passim.Google Scholar

²⁸ Herrick, The Chicago Schools, 314–321; also see Wnek, “Big Ben the Builder,“ Chs. VI and VII.Google Scholar

²⁹ Wnek, “Big Ben the Builder,“ Ch. VII. Havighurst noted that black children in schools built since 1951 outnumbered white children in such schools by nearly a 4 to one ratio in 1963. See The Public Schools of Chicago, Ch. XI.Google Scholar

³⁰ Ibid. Anderson and Pickering note that a construction bond referendum was defeated in April 1962, marking a historic turn in public support for the schools. See Confronting the Color Line, 98. Also see Herrick, The Chicago Schools, Ch. 17.Google Scholar

³¹ These events are described in fulsome detail in Anderson and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, Ch. 3. Also see Herrick, The Chicago Schools, Ch. 16; Cuban, Urban School Chiefs Under Fire, Ch. 1; and Ralph, James R. Jr., Northern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago and the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), 14–25.Google Scholar

³² Anderson, and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, Ch. 3; Cuban, Urban School Chiefs Under Fire, 14–20.Google Scholar

³³ Biles, Richard J. Daley: Race, Politics and Chicago (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996), 100; Herrick, The Chicago Schools, Ch. 17; Cuban, Urban School Chiefs Under Fire, 21–29.Google Scholar

³⁴ Koerner, Thomas F. “Benjamin C. Willis and the Chicago Press,” 225–30. Hundreds of Bogan parents came to Board of Education meetings to protest voluntary transfer plans, including Willis', but cheered Willis loudly and carried signs saying “We Support Dr. Willis.“ Koerner suggests that Willis realized his support came from Whites, and that this made him responsive to their demands. Also see Cuban, Urban School Chiefs Under Fire” 17. For a somewhat abstract analysis of community mobilization around education issues in this period, see Weres, Joseph “School Politics in 33 Community Areas in Chicago“ (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1971), 57, 149 and 173. Weres notes that opposition to school integration was already highly organized in the period immediately following Willis’ departure.Google Scholar

³⁵ The best account of mobilization in the Black community and among civil rights organizations is Anderson, and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, particularly Chs. 4, 5 and 6. Referring to the 1963 controversy over Willis, Anderson and Pickering note that “organized white neighborhood groups, such as the Bogan parents, became outspoken in his behalf,” but they offer no details of how widespread such a movement was. See 117–18. On white community mobilization over housing issues, see Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto, Ch. 4; and McMahon, Eileen M. What Parish are You From? A Chicago Irish Community and Race Relations (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995), passim. Google Scholar

³⁶ The best general account of Daley's participation in the early 1960's Chicago school crisis can be found in Biles, Richard J. Daley, Ch. 4; on the question of Keppel and Daley's handling of the threatened withdrawl of federal funds, see 115–116. also see Cuban, Urban School Chiefs Under Fire, 16–17.Google Scholar

³⁷ Anderson, and Pickering, for instance, note that Alderman James Murray spoke out forcefully against voluntary transfers, helping to incite and agitate Bowen demonstrators. See Confronting the Color Line, 117. Even Black alderman, long loyal to the Mayor, spoke in favor of Willis. See for instance, Koerner, “Benjamin C. Willis and the Chicago Press,” 126 and 257. For an especially adroit analysis of how the Daley Mayoral administration dealt with school politics in this period, see Peterson, Paul E. School Politics Chicago Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), Chs. 4 and 7.Google Scholar

³⁸ On Daley's reliance on Black votes, see Kleppner, Chicago Divided, Ch. 4; also see Grimshaw, Bitter Fruit, Ch. 5. On Dawson, see Anderson and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, 77.Google Scholar

³⁹ Daley, of course, won the 1963 mayoral election because of support from the city's Black wards. The quote was originally found Mike Royko's account of Daley, and is cited in Biles, Richard J. Daley, 99. Also see the discussion of Daley's response to the school crisis, 100–102.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ There also can be little question that Willis’ forceful personality and tempermental disposition also contributed to his dilemma. Perhaps the most detailed account of this can be found in Koerner, “Benjamin C. Willis and the Chicago Press,” Ch. 1. It is also worth noting that even at the height of the schools controversy, in 1963 and 1964, most of the local press in Chicago supported neighborhood schools and Willis’ positions, even if some of them called for his departure. This, along with the support of white communities and members of the local political machine, probably accounts for much of the superintendent's obstinance. On local press support, see Koerner, 158.Google Scholar

⁴¹ On the “Redmond Plan,” see Peterson, School Politics Chicago Style, Ch. 7; and Stringfellow, Christina Hawkins “Desegregation Policies and Practices in Chicago During the Super-intendencies of James Redmond and Joseph Hannon“ (Ph.D. diss., Loyola University Chicago, 1991) Chapter II. Also see Kleppner, Chicago Divided, 53–54, and Anderson and Pickering, Confronting the Color Line, Ch. 12.Google Scholar

⁴² Kleppner, Chicago Divided, 55–60; Sringfellow, “Desegregation Policies and Practices in Chicago,” Ch. 3.Google Scholar

⁴³ These figures are taken from Lewis, James H. “Choice and Race: The Use of Private Schools for Public Purposes“ Unpublished paper presented at School Choice Forum, Social Science Research Institute, Northern Illinois University, November 1997.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Ibid. Interestingly, some Catholic leaders suggested that parochial school enrollments would insure neighborhood stability, a way of avoiding White flight. See McGreevy, John T. Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 240–41. Peterson, School Politics Chicago Style, 168, Kleppner, Chicago Divided, 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁵ On collective bargaining see Peterson, School Politics Chicago Style, Ch. 8. On the labor difficulties and the schools’ financial crisis, see Kleppner, Chicago Divided, 122–23.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Peterson, School Politics Chicago Style, 165–173; on Redmond's experiences in New Orleans, see Wieder, Alan Race and Education: Narrative Essays, Oral Histories, and Documentary Photography (New York: Peter Lang, 1997), Ch. 6. Of course, there had been considerable conflict over housing issues in the period immediately prior to the school crisis. See Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto, Chs. 1, 2, 3 and 7. Hirsch makes no reference to school issues, but it is clear that in some areas of the city—such as the southwest side—they were clearly connected. On this point see Kleppner, Chicago Divided, 55.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Hochschild, Jennifer The New American Dilemma: Liberal Democracy and School Desegregation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984) Ch. 5. On newspaper support for neighborhood schools, see Koerner, “Benjamin C. Willis and the Chicago Press,” 98–99, 119, and 143. On support for Willis, see 151, 161, 236 and 278.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Stringfellow, “Desgregation Policies and Practices in Chicago,“ Ch. 4.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Stringfellow, “Desegregation Policies and Practices in Chicago,“ Ch. 4.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ For an overview of change in the Chicago Public Schools during the latter 1970's and eighties, see Mirel, Jeffrey “School Reform, Chicago Style: Educational Innovation in a Changing Urban Context, 1976–1991“ Urban Education 28:1 (January 1993): 116–149.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Ibid.; also see Hess, G. A. Jr., School Restructuring, Chicago Style (Newberry Park: Corwin Press, 1990) passim; Weele, Maribeth Vander Reclaiming Our Schools: The Struggle for Chicago School Reform (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1994), passim; and Hess, G. A. Jr., “Introduction: School Based Management as a Vehicle for School Reform” Education and Urban Society 26:3 (May 1994): 203–219.Google Scholar

⁵² See Wong, Kenneth Dreeben, Robert Lynn, Laurence E. Jr., and Sunderman, Gail L. Integrated Governance as a Reform Strategy in the Chicago Public Schools: A Report on System-wide School Governance Reform (Chicago: University of Chicago Department of Education, 1997), passim.Google Scholar

⁵³ Ibid. On patterns of inequality in the Chicago region, see The Assembly, Chicago Education Reform for the 21st Century, 37. As indicated in this report, Chicago schools enroll more than seventy percent of the low-income children in the region, and more than sixty percent of children from minority ethnic groups, even though they serve only about a third of the total metropolitan student population. For a national perspective on persistent educational inequities, see Taylor, William L. “The Continuing Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity“ in Boger, John Charles and Wegner, Judith Welch eds. Race, Poverty and American Cities (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 463–489.Google Scholar