Death of a Suburban Dream: Race and Schools in Compton, California

Description

"Death of a Suburban Dream explores the history of Compton from its founding in the late nineteenth century to the present, taking on three critical issues--the history of race and educational equity, the relationship between schools and place, and the complicated intersection of schooling and municipal economies--as they shaped a Los Angeles suburb experiencing economic and demographic transformation. Emily E. Straus carefully traces the roots of antagonism between two historically disenfranchised populations, blacks and Latinos, as these groups resisted municipal power sharing within a context of scarcity. Using archival research and oral histories, this complex narrative reveals how increasingly racialized poverty and violence made Compton, like other inner-ring suburbs, resemble a troubled urban center. Ultimately, the book argues that Compton's school crisis is not, at heart, a crisis of education; it is a long-term crisis of development."--Publisher's description.