Chapter 8: The Rise and Fall of a Black Private School: Holy Name of Mary and the Golden Age of Black Private Education in Chicago, 1940–1990

The decades following World War II will inexorably be marked by African Americans’ struggle for public school integration. This watershed period witnessed the culmination of their protracted struggle against unequal education with the signature Brown v. the Board of Education victory. Though many racialized inequities stubbornly persist, countless activists, attorneys, and parents have used Brown to make great strides in desegregating American society.

Ironically, this era of Brown, with its ostensible focus on integration, was also a golden age of Black private education. A short list of scholars such as Lisa M. Stulberg have chronicled how African Americans reconciled their faith in racially mixed schools while also championing separate Black institutions. This fidelity to Black schools had many sources and range from racial pride and trust in Black teachers to anxiety over the process and slow pace of desegregation (especially in northern cities).¹ This essay builds on this often neglected history and attempts to show the depth, rich history, and conflicted politics of Black educational institutions which emerge from a variety of forces. Though the stakes and political terrain has changed, this tradition of seeking alternatives to traditional public education continues in the Black community and animates the highly contentious debate over school choice.²