Biracial Interaction in an Urban Secondary School

Despite the interest in methods of achieving integration in urban, secondary schools, there is a lack of information about what activities black and white students who are presently in desegregated schools engage in together. Teachers and administrators, and even visitors to these schools, report that although the schools are desegregated, the students are not integrated. Blacks come to school, attend class, eat and hang around the halls with other blacks; whites do the same things with other whites. But while this may appear to be the situation it is only a part of it. Anyone who works in a desegregated school can point to may instances of individual interaction among blacks and whites. They are together for six or more hours each day; they share classes, activities, and sports. Even those without contacts have a basic understanding of how to behave toward a student of the "other" race. If this were not so, these schools would be in a constant state of riotous disruption. Despite many newspaper accounts to the contrary, they are not. Notwithstanding the fact that blacks and whites may seem to ignore each other, they seem to accommodate to each other's presence in the schools.