ABSTRACT
A product of “resegregation” or a “resegregated society” (Alim, 2005), approximately 89.2 percent of Benjamin Banneker’s (Banneker) 670 students identified themselves as “Black/African American” during the 2003-2004 academic year. Later, Mama C told me that Banneker was
originally slated to be a school for African American male students only. However, when this exclusively male student configuration was beginning to stir controversy the school promptly enrolled female students as well. Mama C, a native daughter of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn, attended segregated schools some thirty years prior to entering the teaching force only to find herself in segregated schools once again. As a “literacy coach,” Mama C was responsible for working with all content-area teachers on implementing reading and writing in meaningful ways across the curriculum. She conducted professional development workshops, helped organize the Writing Center at Banneker, and started the after-school spoken word poetry club.
