William H. Watkins. The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865–1954, New York: Teachers College Press, 2001, 207 pp., ISBN 0–8077–4043–8 (cloth, $50.00).

In this book, William H. Watkins scrutinizes a small group of powerful White elites who shaped the Black impulse for schooling in the postbellum America. In doing so, he builds on the historical work of James D. Anderson, Horace Mann Bond, and Ronald E. Butchart while employing critical theory. Like these writers, Watkins approaches his study broadly and attempts to see schooling in its sociopolitical context. Watkins downplays the great migration and famous Washington–Du Bois debate over what constituted a proper schooling for the race. He sees these as minor developments compared to the thoughts and actions of “White architects” who stepped forward to offer a solution to the “Negro problem.” Watkins writes about the establishment of Black schools as a social interaction between unequal groups and studies this interplay from the vantage point of the more powerful group. Thus, he casts his analysis as an expression of colonialism.