What’s this newsletter all about?

Yesterday’s Classrooms is about the history of race and segregation in American education.

The stories in this newsletter are important because education is political. And schools are the institutions through which we cultivate citizens. They are contested civic spaces where everyday folks—people like you and me—battle over the past, clash about the present, and argue over the future.

Education is how we raise up the next generation. What we do in schools tells us something about the society we’re trying to build.

In the majority opinion for Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren called education “the very foundation of good citizenship.” Yesterday’s Classrooms uncovers the history (and, by extension, the presentness) behind our schoolhouse doors. It’s difficult history. But it’s a history that tells us who we are.

What will you read?

• Research-based and primary document-sourced stories about the history of race and segregation in American education.

• Commentary about how the history of race and segregation in American education plays out in today’s schools.

• Analyses of the bigger social, political, and economic histories that shaped yesterday’s classrooms and still shape our classrooms today.

• Reading recommendations and book notes about these topics.

Why subscribe?

Because the past is present.

Because we are our history—whether we like it or not.

Because we need to build a better tomorrow (and understanding history can help us do just that).

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