There is no doubt that the topic of racially motivated school segregation in the US is an important one, and Noliwe Rooks certainly has the academic prestige and the knowledge to write about it. However, perhaps something about her writing style failed to compel me to keep reading. Despite the book's subtitle making it clear what it's about, I found that Rooks almost equivocates her main argument in the introduction, e.g. "Is school segregation *really* all that bad for Black children? Wellllllll..." Which was rather startling and confusing to read, and didn't really make me feel keen on continuing to puzzle out her thesis.

Integrated takes personal narrative, policies, and history to tell a more complicated history of the after effects of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. I highly recommend reading this with Punished for Dreaming by Bettina L. Love.

There was so much important history in this book, most of it I did not know. The stories were inspiring, hopeful, and heartbreaking. There was a lovely balance between the author’s personal history and general history, policies, and national legislature. The content was challenging, but Rooks made it feel accessible.
The book centers around Brown v. Board, the history leading up to the case, and the aftermath. One of the first steps in the massive undertaking of reform of systemic racism in schools is education on what that looked like in the past and what it still looks like today. America did not set up Black students to succeed and took away many of the resources obtained before Brown v. Board. I was fascinated by how many Black Americans were against desegregation, as it’s always taught as a progressive, positive act. Integration, as it was done, was done without a plan and left Black students vulnerable to an increase in racism that left their school lives no longer safe. Racism in America is rampant, and the three generations of stories Rook shares show that.
I grew up in a school with METCO and have always been so interested in how a system like that improved anything — it’s taxing on the student’s mental and physical wellbeing. It tries to solve a problem by inconveniencing the people it is presumed to help.
I am angry and sad and so glad I was able to read this book. Thank you to the publisher, Noliwe Rooks and NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Despite having some knowledge about the history of Brown v. Board of Education, I learned a lot from this book and believe it should be required reading for anyone interested in the education field or policy. It’s researched well with historical facts and personal anecdotes that explain the negative impacts from the case that still persist today. Like others have said, I believe this was well written and is a very important topic that needs to be studied and chronicled.

This was such an interesting backstory to what I feel like I’ve learned about Brown vs the Board of Education. I really appreciated the different perspective and feel like I learned a whole lot of new information!