Black Male Academies

Anthony L. Brown

African American male academies—single-sex, single-race schools within the public system—were proposed in the late 1980s as a possible solution to the poor academic record of young African American males in many urban areas. Although the original wave of such schools foundered in legal action, modified versions have prospered, and revised laws have opened the door to a new debate about this option. This entry explores the history of these academies. Following Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas (1954), African American activists and educators believed that desegregated schools would increase the likelihood that African American children would have equal access to a quality education. But not all African American activists were in agreement with this assertion. With the emergence of the Black power movement, several educators and activists maintained that school desegration had done little to improve the life chances of African Americans and in fact might have done During ...

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