Spotlights the tireless work of Black teachers in a historic New Orleans public school, one of countless public schools now part of a school closing crisis in cities nationwide
Time and again, teachers of color have been blamed for every conceivable wrong in urban schools, a tactic that ignores the history of racism and bolsters the expansion of charter schools that lack community roots. Covering the rich, 50-year legacy of George Washington Carver Senior High School from 1958-2005, What We Stand to Lose investigates how public school closures have impacted predominantly Black urban neighborhoods in New Orleans. This institutional history demonstrates the cultural value of school communities over time, including the ways they have navigated and excelled despite racism and state neglect.
Through oral history interviewing and archival research, antiracist organizer and author Kristen Buras offers an in-depth look into counter stories that oppose white majoritarian allegations of school failure. She conducted oral history interviews with more than 30 Carver alumni and teachers, unveiling the intergenerational culture that nurtured self-determination and an abiding sense of community in the face of endemic racism. In turn, Buras demonstrates Black teachers’ invaluable and often unrecognized contributions.
In compelling detail, Buras highlights the dire consequences of school closings, illuminating why the assault on veteran teachers, and the communities they have fostered, is the civil rights issue of our era.
“In privatizing New Orleans’ public schools, education officials and charter school advocates labeled them completely dysfunctional, saying they failed generations of children. Buras disproves this baseless claim and the accusation that Black teachers were the prime reason for the system’s failure. Dispelling such allegations, she documents the illustrious history of a Black high school, revealing its notable achievements. What We Stand to Lose is a must-read and a disturbing example of the marginalization of Black people and their institutions that has plagued America for centuries.”
—Raynard Sanders, coauthor of Twenty-First-Century Jim Crow Schools: The Impact of Charters on Public Education and executive director of the Claiborne Avenue History Project
“In the pages of this book, Kristen Buras bears witness to the vibrancy of a community school in Black New Orleans. Written with humility as well as brute honesty, she reveals the state-sanctioned death of an institution that affirmed life for young people and their families. It is a story that must be told and can never be forgotten.”
—Dave Stovall, author of Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation, and the Politics of Interruption
“Education is a political battleground where schools are treated as capital assets and teachers as low skill operatives who ‘deliver’ prepackaged curricula. Buras’s powerful and moving book explodes these shameful lies and reminds us of the rich and irreplaceable work of Black teachers who care, who are there for children, who EDUCATE in the best sense of that word.”
—David Gillborn, author of White Lies: Racism, Education and Critical Race Theory and editor of the journal Race Ethnicity and Education
“In What We Stand to Lose, Kristen Buras brilliantly weaves the story of urban public education in New Orleans through the lens of George Washington Carver Senior High School. This book stands as a powerful generational study of a school and its community, offering critical insights into the politics of public education—past, present, and future. Masterful!”
—Derrick Alridge, coeditor of Schooling the Movement: The Activism of Southern Black Educators from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Era and associate editor of the Journal of African American History
“Against racist, pathologizing narratives that justify closing schools in Black communities, Kristen Buras offers a powerful counter-narrative of New Orleans’ Black educators’ commitment to community building and self-determination. Through the story of one school, Buras compels us to see what is under attack and what we must collectively fight for: Black public education integral to the Black freedom struggle.”
—Pauline Lipman, author of The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City
“What We Stand to Lose is a timely, compelling book on the history and impact of Black public schools and what is sacrificed when they are closed. Kristen Buras masterfully narrates a story of the power of teaching and community, despite the sociopolitical challenges that have undermined and continue to threaten the equitable pursuit of Black education. Given the current attacks on public schools nationwide and the enduring costs incurred by communities and neighborhoods, this must-read book is a clarion call to recognize the value of Black teachers and schools.”
—Keffrelyn Brown, author of After the “At-Risk” Label: Reorienting Educational Policy and Practice and cofounder of the Center for Innovation in Race, Teaching, and Curriculum, University of Texas-Austin