"The first comprehensive study of the process of desegregation as it unfolded during the twentieth century at the flagship universities and white land-grant institutions of the south."--Amy Thompson McCandless, College of Charleston

"Broadens the discussion of the civil rights movement to include academic spaces as sites of struggle and contributes to southern history by providing unique accounts of black agency during the dismantling of the Jim Crow South."-- Stephanie Y. Evans, University of Florida

Nowhere else can one read about how Brown v. Board of Education transformed higher education on campus after campus, in state after state, across the South. And no other book details the continuing struggle to change each school in the years that followed the enrollment of the first African American students.

Institutions of higher education long functioned as bastions of white supremacy and black exclusion. Against the walls of Jim Crow and the powers of state laws, black southerners--prospective students, their parents and families, their lawyers and their communities--struggled to gain access and equity. Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement examines an understudied aspect of racial history, revealing desegregation to be a process, not an event.

Peter Wallenstein is professor of history at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

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The seven essays broaden the discussion of the civil rights movement to include academic spaces as places of struggle.
--The Courier: Tennessee Historical Commission

" A compelling read and much needed addition to the literature on the Civil Rights movement"
--Book News Inc.

"This fine collection of essays has several strengths. The essays go beyond the familiar to examine less-well-known cases; they do not stop at admission, but follow individuals to graduation and beyond; and they offer multiple perspectives."
--Choice

"The seven essays, introduction, and afterward firmly place the desegregation of southern colleges and universities within the context of the broader civil rights movement. Readers will also appreciate how black undergraduate and graduate students continue to challenge white supremacy by working for inclusive curricula, services, and programming at major educational institutions in the South."
--The Journal of Southern History