Arguing that higher education can play a unique role in addressing the fundamental divisions in our society and economy by supporting individuals in reaching their full potential, the authors have developed a provocative guide for higher education leaders who want to promote healthy and productive campus communities.

A Brill | Sense Bestseller! What if everything you thought you knew about Black people generally, and educating Black children specifically, was based on BS (bad stats)? We often hear things like, “Black boys are a dying breed,” “There are more Black men in prison than college,” “Black children fail because single mothers raise them,” and “Black students don’t read.” In No BS, Ivory A. Toldson uses data analysis, anecdotes, and powerful commentary to dispel common myths and challenge conventional beliefs about educating Black children. With provocative, engaging, and at times humorous prose, Toldson teaches educators, parents, advocates, and students how to avoid BS, raise expectations, and create an educational agenda for Black children that is based on good data, thoughtful analysis, and compassion. No BS helps people understand why Black people need people who believe in Black people enough not to believe every bad thing they hear about Black people.

A NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2021 Selection “[T]his book is so much more than a memoir . . . . Her prose has the power to undo deep-set cultural biases about poverty and parenthood.”—New York Times Book Review An activist calls for better support of young families so they can thrive and reflects on her experiences as a Black mother and college student fighting for opportunities for herself and her child. Pregnant Girl presents the possibility of a different future for young mothers—one of success and stability—in the midst of the dismal statistics that dominate the national conversation. Along with her own story as a young Black mother, Nicole Lynn Lewis weaves in those of the men and women she’s worked with to share a new perspective on how poverty, classism, and systemic racism impact teen pregnancy and on how effective programs and equitable policies can help teen parents earn college degrees, have increased opportunity, and create a legacy of educational and career achievements in their families. After Nicole became pregnant during her senior year in high school, she was told that college was no longer a reality—a negative outlook often unfairly presented to teen mothers. Nicole left home and experienced periods of homelessness, hunger, and poverty. Despite these obstacles, she enrolled at the College of William & Mary and brought her 3-month-old daughter along. Through her experiences fighting for resources to put herself through college, she discovered her true calling and founded her organization, Generation Hope, to provide support for teen parents and their children so they can thrive in college and kindergarten—driving a 2-generation solution to poverty. Pregnant Girl will inspire young parents faced with similar choices and obstacles that they too can pursue their goals with the right support.

To their disadvantage, few Americans--and few in higher education--know much about the successes of historically Black colleges and universities. How is it that historically Black colleges graduate so many low-income and academically poorly prepared students? How do they manage to do so well with students "as they are", even when adopting open admissions policies?In this volume, contributors from a wide spectrum of Black colleges offer insights and examples of the policies and practice--such as retention strategies, co-curricular activities and approaches to mentoring--which underpin their disproportionate success with populations that too often fail in other institutions.This book also challenges the myth that these colleges are segregated institutions and that teachers of color are essential to minority student success. HBCUs employ large numbers of non-Black faculty who demonstrate the ability to facilitate the success of African American students.This book offers valuable lessons for faculty, faculty developers, student affairs personnel and administrators in the wider higher education community–lessons that are all the more urgent as they face a growing racially diverse student population.While, for HBCUs themselves, this book reaffirms the importance of their mission today, it also raises issues they must address to maintain the edge they have achieved.Contributors: Pamela G. Arrington; Delbert Baker; Susan Baker; Stanley F. Battle; T. J. Bryan; Terrolyn P. Carter; Ronnie L. Collins; Samuel DuBois Cook; Elaine Johnson Copeland; Marcela A. Copes; Quiester Craig; Lawrence A. Davis, Jr.; Frances C. Gordon; Frank W. Hale, Jr.; B. Denise Hawkins; Karen A. Holbrook; James E. Hunter; Frank L. Matthews; Henry Ponder; Anne S. Pruitt-Logan; Talbert O. Shaw; Orlando L. Taylor ; W. Eric Thomas; M. Rick Turner; Mervyn A. Warren; Charles V. Willie; James G. Wingate.

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Frustrated with the flood of news articles and opinion pieces that were skeptical of minority students' "imagined" campus microaggressions, Micere Keels, a professor of comparative human development, set out to provide a detailed account of how racial-ethnic identity structures Black and Latinx students' college transition experiences. Tracking a cohort of more than five hundred Black and Latinx students since they enrolled at five historically white colleges and universities in the fall of 2013 Campus Counterspaces finds that these students were not asking to be protected from new ideas. Instead, they relished exposure to new ideas, wanted to be intellectually challenged, and wanted to grow. However, Keels argues, they were asking for access to counterspaces—safe spaces that enable radical growth. They wanted counterspaces where they could go beyond basic conversations about whether racism and discrimination still exist. They wanted time in counterspaces with likeminded others where they could simultaneously validate and challenge stereotypical representations of their marginalized identities and develop new counter narratives of those identities. In this critique of how universities have responded to the challenges these students face, Keels offers a way forward that goes beyond making diversity statements to taking diversity actions.

The academy may claim to seek and value diversity in its professoriate, but reports from faculty of color around the country make clear that departments and administrators discriminate in ways that range from unintentional to malignant. Stories abound of scholars--despite impressive records of publication, excellent teaching evaluations, and exemplary service to their universities--struggling on the tenure track. These stories, however, are rarely shared for public consumption. Written/Unwritten reveals that faculty of color often face two sets of rules when applying for reappointment, tenure, and promotion: those made explicit in handbooks and faculty orientations or determined by union contracts and those that operate beneath the surface. It is this second, unwritten set of rules that disproportionally affects faculty who are hired to "diversify" academic departments and then expected to meet ever-shifting requirements set by tenured colleagues and administrators. Patricia A. Matthew and her contributors reveal how these implicit processes undermine the quality of research and teaching in American colleges and universities. They also show what is possible when universities persist in their efforts to create a diverse and more equitable professorate. These narratives hold the academy accountable while providing a pragmatic view about how it might improve itself and how that improvement can extend to academic culture at large. The contributors and interviewees are Ariana E. Alexander, Marlon M. Bailey, Houston A. Baker Jr., Dionne Bensonsmith, Leslie Bow, Angie Chabram, Andreana Clay, Jane Chin Davidson, April L. Few-Demo, Eric Anthony Grollman, Carmen V. Harris, Rashida L. Harrison, Ayanna Jackson-Fowler, Roshanak Kheshti, Patricia A. Matthew, Fred Piercy, Deepa S. Reddy, Lisa Sanchez Gonzalez, Wilson Santos, Sarita Echavez See, Andrew J. Stremmel, Cheryl A. Wall, E. Frances White, Jennifer D. Williams, and Doctoral Candidate X.

In addition to many other issues that touch higher education around the world, diversity and equity in higher education is fast becoming a major opportunity and challenge to institutions, countries and regions. The increasing centrality of diversity is fueled in part by changing demographics, immigration, social movements, calls for remedies to historic grievances, and the relationship between identity and access to power. This book will provide an opportunity to look at efforts at institutional change with respect to diversity in several countries where issues of diversity are moving beyond simply access for diverse populations to efforts at institutional transformation. Its purpose is to provide a comparative perspective with the hope that we will be able to see patterns across these contexts from which we might learn. Amongst other subjects it will address: The historic and contemporary context for diversity Established and emerging salient identities How diversity is framed at a national and institutional level The prevailing strategies and policies for engaging diversity, again at the national and institutional level The role of special purpose institutions This critical book is essential for higher education scholars and practitioners with backgrounds in higher education.

Bestselling author Reverend Al Sharpton brings to light the stories of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights movement, drawing on his unique perspective in the history of the fight for social justice in America “This is the time. We won’t stop until we change the whole system of justice.”—Rev. Al Sharpton While the world may know the major names of the Civil Rights movement, there are countless lesser-known heroes fighting the good fight to advance equal justice for all, heeding the call when no one else was listening, often risking their lives and livelihoods in the process. Righteous Troublemakers shines a light on everyday people called to do extraordinary things—like Pauli Murray, whose early work informed Thurgood Marshall’s legal argument for Brown v. Board of Education, Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus months before Rosa Parks did the same, and Gwen Carr, whose private pain in losing her son Eric Garner stoked her public activism against police brutality. Sharpton also illuminates the lives of more widely known individuals, revealing overlooked details, historical connections, and a perspective informed by years of working on the front line of the social justice movement, to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the wheels of justice and the individuals who have helped advance its cause.