ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the sociopolitical construction of the race-based dual school system and its impact on African American children. The framers of the US Constitution did not provide any guidance for public education. What followed was an unevenly developed and decentralized state-run system that created racially separate structures. This dual school system fostered different goals for blacks and whites. For white children it provided an entrée education that prepared them for college and the workforce. For African American children the separate school system was a trick bag. 1 Trick bag is a metaphor used to describe endless and numerous attempts to keep black kids in predominately black schools. Confined in black enclaves and socially isolated from whites, the schools they attended were certifiably inferior. There are so many false openings in the trick bag, such as compensatory training, uniforms, same-sex education and computer-assisted learning. Black children who tried to escape became more entangled in the system. In the race-based society the traditional curriculum was designed for middle-class whites and was virtually impossible for the majority of black children to decode. Accordingly, the legacy of the race-based society's schools haunts black children in the 21st century. There is an enormous amount of research documenting the achievement gap between black and white children. Getting black children out of the trick bag continues to be extremely difficult because of de facto segregation of schools and housing. A brief history will explain how the situation was constructed and why is it is so difficult to dismantle this system.
