Introduction : the social construction of race in American schools -- Race as nation, 1900-1938 -- Franz Boas : reforming "race" in American schools -- Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead : teaching teachers race and culture -- Race as color, 1939-1945 -- Race as culture, 1946-1954 -- Conclusion Race and Educational Equality after Brown v. Board of Education
Summary
Between the turn of the twentieth century and the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the way that American schools taught about "race" changed dramatically. This transformation was engineered by the nation's most prominent anthropologists, including Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead, during World War II. Inspired by scientific racism in Nazi Germany, these activist scholars decided that the best way to fight racial prejudice was to teach what they saw as the truth about race in the institution that had the power to do the most good-American schools. Anthropologi
