The scholarly community has been neglectful in its study of those urban and predominantly African American schools that manifest agency in spite of persistent racial inequalities and poverty. Consequently, we are left to wonder whether anything good can come from urban African American schools, or from the communities where they are located. This article emanates from an investigation of two predominantly African American elementary schools in low-income communities—one in St. Louis, Missouri (1994–1997), and the other in Atlanta, Georgia (1999–2002)—both renowned for successfully educating their students. The author’s findings have implications for educational theory and practice and suggest the need for multifarious studies of urban and predominantly African American schools, families, and communities.

This article highlights the significance of the U.S. South in scholarly discussions regarding the academic achievement gap involving Black students. Despite national concern, patterns embedded in Black student achievement as related to geographical influences generally are ignored, especially in the South, where the majority of Black people in the United States reside. The authors refine the scholarship on the Black-White achievement gap through an analysis of racialized national spaces and population shifts, to set forth a more comprehensive understanding of school achievement than previously existed. In elucidating the nexus between race and place and the implications for Black student achievement, the authors specifically highlight the saliency of the U.S. South as a critical-and neglectedsite for the investigation of such issues.

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The conceptualization and implementation of desegregation educational policies are incomplete when they ignore the voices of Black educators. Through in-depth interviews with 21 African American educators in St. Louis, this article highlights how elements of what is being defined today as critical race theory were embedded in these educators' analyses of a 1983 court settlement that resulted in a 16-year desegregation plan. Through rich and detailed accounts, these educators illustrate how the desegregation plan ultimately protected the overall interests of Whites. Their analyses of the plan-seemingly pessimistic-were realistic. The ending of the plan in 1999 continued to place the onus on Black people to rectify the inequitable education in the city. Suggested is the need for courts and policy makers to begin listening to the voices of African American educators when framing educational policies' intent on improving the education of African American students.