Sharon Lee. An Unseen Unheard Minority: Asian American Students at the University of Illinois New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2021. 172 pp.

Abstract

researched, Burkholder seems to have left few stones unturned. Sources include newspapers, research studies, court cases, the NAACP papers, school board records, and a plethora of secondary sources. She manages the varying viewpoints of white conservatives, moderates, and liberals as well as Black nationalists, integrationists, moderates, civil rights leaders, and Black power advocates. Burkholder also simplifies a complex history with excellent writing, representative vignettes, and amplified voices of scholars, leaders, teachers, parents, and students. Inevitably, even the most comprehensive studies may fail to feature every example or city. Burkholder deftly chooses representative samples to demonstrate both support for and opposition to integration. Such an approach can also lead to some viewpoints receiving minimal coverage. It would have been useful to see more coverage of Black nationalism in the earlier eras as well as more Black views of community control. Finally, perhaps the study should have ended prior to the contemporary period, because the examples beyond 2007 are limited. These are all minor points of preference rather than critiques. So much of the history of northern Black education is only found in case studies or limited to certain eras. This study is timely, extensive, and a major contribution to the history of African American education. More significantly, it reminds us that both strategies of integration and separation were thoughtful responses in the various historical contexts. Certainly, Black people should be integrated into the larger society to fulfill their roles as citizens, claim the luxuries of freedom, and avoid underfunded and inequitable education. They should also be free to value an education in Black-controlled spaces where students can be nurtured and cultivated to their highest potential, as Vanessa Siddle Walker has argued. Throughout the back-and-forth between these strategies, white supremacy has truncated both responses. The value of these continued debates is evidence that Black people are unwilling to sit back and allow white supremacy to continue unabated.