Children of the Dream

The Supreme Court's decision in Broad v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared the racial segregation of American schools unconstitutional, is universally understood as a landmark moment in our nation's history. Yet looking back from the present day, we judge the integrationist dream post-Brown as an utter failure, in the belief that it harmed students and deepened racial divisions in our society. Though integration efforts continued into the 1980s, reaching a highpoint in 1988, since then we've reverted to a situation in which segregation-no longer de jure, but de facto-prevails. Was integration a social experiment doomed from the start?

In Children of the Dream, economist Rucker Johnson unearths the astonishing true story of integration in America. Drawing on immense longitudinal studies tracking the fates of thousands of individuals over the course of many decades, Johnson reveals that integration not only worked, but worked spectacularly well. Children who attended integrated schools were far more successful in life than those who didn't-and this held true for children of all races and backgrounds. Indeed, Johnson's research shows that well-funded, integrated schools were nothing less than the primary engine of social mobility in America across the 1970s and 1980s.

Yet the experiment was all-too-brief, owing to a racial backlash and the unwillingness of even self-professed liberals to send their kids to integrated schools. As Johnson argues, by allowing educational segregation and inequality to fester, we are doing damage to society as a whole. Explaining why integration worked, why it came up short, and how it can be revived, Children of the Dream offers a prescription for ending inequality and reviving the American Dream in our time.

“"There is no more urgent issue in America today than closing the gaps between Americans of different races and ensuring that everyone has a decent life and living. Education is central to that aspiration. This book is a bracing and informative summary of the history of segregation, desegregation, and resegregation. It demonstrates that integration works and that it is a goal towards which our entire society should work."-- Diane Ravitch , author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System”

"If you long for compelling arguments to reinforce a commitment to equal opportunity, Children of the Dream is a must-read. This well-written book integrates analyses of original quantitative data sets with engaging discussions of eye-opening qualitative evidence to reveal in sharp relief why the combination of integrated education, quality preschools, and equitable school funding works for disadvantaged students. Rucker C. Johnson has written an important volume that is bound to not only engage academics and policymakers, but general readers as well."--William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University
"In a highly diverse society and world like ours, integration matters. Most of us learn to live integrated lives through integrated schools. Rucker C. Johnson's ground-breaking research should raise alarms for policy makers, educators, parents, and any other citizen concerned about America's future in the face of classrooms that look today as segregated as they were when that practice was declared unlawful in 1954."--Deval Patrick, Managing Director, Bain Capital Double Impact, former Governor of Massachusetts
"There is no more urgent issue in America today than closing the gaps between Americans of different races and ensuring that everyone has a decent life and living. Education is central to that aspiration. This book is a bracing and informative summary of the history of segregation, desegregation, and resegregation. It demonstrates that integration works and that it is a goal towards which our entire society should work."--Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System
"This book is fuel for hope. No other work addressing race so powerfully combines first-class social science with historical, social, and policy analysis. Passion shapes the narrative without compromising the science. Indeed, here is a model for how to advocate equity by being advocates for evidence rather than ideology. Children of the Dream joins Richard Rothstein's recent work as essential reading for anyone committed to understanding our racial divisions and then addressing them with public policies and moral courage."--Christopher Edley, professor and former dean, U.C. Berkeley Law School, and co-founder, The Opportunity Institute

Rucker C. Johnson is an associate professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He lives in Oakland, California.

The Supreme Court's decision in Broad v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared the racial segregation of American schools unconstitutional, is universally understood as a landmark moment in our nation's history. Yet looking back from the present day, we judge the integrationist dream post-Brown as an utter failure, in the belief that it harmed students and deepened racial divisions in our society. Though integration efforts continued into the 1980s, reaching a highpoint in 1988, since then we've reverted to a situation in which segregation-no longer de jure , but de facto -prevails. Was integration a social experiment doomed from the start? In Children of the Dream , economist Rucker Johnson unearths the astonishing true story of integration in America. Drawing on immense longitudinal studies tracking the fates of thousands of individuals over the course of many decades, Johnson reveals that integration not only worked, but worked spectacularly well. Children who attended integrated schools were far more successful in life than those who didn't-and this held true for children of all races and backgrounds. Indeed, Johnson's research shows that well-funded, integrated schools were nothing less than the primary engine of social mobility in America across the 1970s and 1980s. Yet the experiment was all-too-brief, owing to a racial backlash and the unwillingness of even self-professed liberals to send their kids to integrated schools. As Johnson argues, by allowing educational segregation and inequality to fester, we are doing damage to society as a whole. Explaining why integration worked, why it came up short, and how it can be revived, Children of the Dream offers a prescription for ending inequality and reviving the American Dream in our time.

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