religious activity from public schools, ending
busing battles raged in the streets, "I see
Belfast out there."42
many schools' de facto Protestant orientation.
The secularization of public schooling did little,
Importantly, forced integration in the lat-
however, to please many religious Americans,
ter half of the 20th century did not just embit-
Protestant and otherwise, who felt that faith
ter whites. It was greatly resented by large
was central to good education and had to have
numbers of African Americans as well. Indeed,
a place in the public schools. The result has
a 1982 Boston Globe poll found that 79 percent
been decades of feuding over prayer in schools,
of black parents with children in the Boston
students' religious expression that might be
public schools favored open enrollment,
deemed offensive to other groups, and endless
which would have let them choose their
battles over the teaching of evolution.
child's public school, over busing, and 42 per-
Today, despite rhetoric about public educa-
cent said they had opposed busing from the
start.43 Moreover, many blacks felt more alien-
tion being the "bedrock of democracy," even
many committed supporters of public school-
ated after forced integration than they had
ing concede that over the last several decades it
before it, especially as they lost control of
has failed to live up to its lofty charge to unify
schools that had been integral to their com-
and democratize. As Stanford University pro-
munities. As historian James T. Patterson
Many committed
fessor Linda Darling-Hammond has written:
relates:
supporters of
Right now our democracy is in trouble.
A Wilmington, North Carolina, black
public schooling
Only about one-third of our citizens feel
woman also wondered about desegrega-
concede that over
sufficiently interested or empowered to
tion. She had attended Williston High
the last several
participate in a regular way in the polit-
School, which had been dedicated as a
ical process. Racial, ethnic, and class
new facility--for blacks alone--on the
decades it has
divisions are growing as confusion
very day, May 17, 1954, that Brown had
failed to live up to
about vast social changes create a search
been decided. There she had been happy
for scapegoats. The ability of citizens to
and motivated. "We were in a cocoon
its lofty charge to
come together for positive social action
bathed in a warm fluid, where we were
unify and
in their local communities seems under-
expected to excel," she recalled. In 1968,
democratize.
mined by a combination of intergroup
however, "something called desegrega-
antagonism and a sense of cynicism and
tion" arrived in Wilmington and "punc-
hopelessness about the usefulness of
tured" the cocoon. Williston High
collective effort.45
School ceased to exist as a black school,
late becoming instead a middle school
for whites as well as blacks. The woman
Public schooling, it appears, is failing in its
sighed, "We went from our own land to
mission to unify. It also seems to be failing its
being tourists in someone else's. It never
civic mission. Darling-Hammond observes a
did come together."44
breakdown in "positive social action" in com-
munities, in stark contrast to what de Tocque-
ville observed in 1831. Moreover, unlike the
Forced integration certainly put blacks and
19th century, in the 20th century turnout in
whites into the same schools, but it did little
presidential elections dropped, falling from an
to promote the social cohesion that it was
average of 70.8 percent in the elections between
meant to foster.
1896 and 1908, to 52.7 percent between 1992
Religious conflicts over the content of pub-
and 2004. As mentioned before, many variables
lic school education also raged on in the 1960s
are at play in voter turnout beyond education.
and 70s, despite the fact that Supreme Court
But with the opening of public schooling to all
rulings such as School District of Abington
students, compulsory attendance in every state
Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp and its com-
in the union, and unprecedented state and fed-
panion case Murray v. Curlett, removed overtly
12