Education · Race · American Politics
Schooling and the struggle over freedom.
I study how conflicts over schooling have shaped racial inequality, political power, and American democracy.
I am a historian and associate professor in the School of Education at Saint Louis University. My research examines school desegregation and the ways people and institutions defended, challenged, and reorganized educational authority after Brown v. Board of Education.
Associate Professor
School of Education | Saint Louis University
Recognition
2026 John Inscoe Award
My article with Alyssa Ignaczak on Help Our Public Education (HOPE) and the integration of Atlanta’s public schools received the Georgia Historical Society’s award for the best article published in the Georgia Historical Quarterly during 2025.
Books & Research
This Is
Maddox Country
Georgia Governor Lester G. Maddox and the White Backlash in American Politics
Book manuscript under contract
University of South Carolina Press
This book examines how Georgia governor Lester G. Maddox turned white resentment into a political identity. Through his defense of segregation, appeals to freedom, and performance of populist defiance, Maddox offered his white supporters a way to understand resistance to racial equality as articulations of freedom and liberty.
How Segregation
Became Freedom
The Remaking of American Schooling after Brown
Book project in development
Working title
This project asks how American schooling was reorganized after Brown v. Board of Education and explores how racial segregation came to be defended as expressions of parental choice, residential freedom of choice, and local control. The project connects the language of freedom to changes in public and private institutions, examining how struggles over desegregation reshaped educational authority and public responsibility.
Selected Writing
Journal article · 2025
“Help Our Public Education (HOPE), Concerned Motherhood, and Integrating Atlanta’s Public Schools”
With Alyssa Ignaczak · Georgia Historical Quarterly
Research report · 2025
Displacement of Black Teachers in Missouri Post-Brown, 1954–1970
With Alyssa Ignaczak · SLU PRiME Center
Public history · 2025
Brooks v. Moberly
Missouri Encyclopedia · State Historical Society of Missouri
History for a wider readership
Yesterday’s Classrooms
I also write about the history of race and segregation in American education for a broader readership on my Substack.
For inquiries, invitations, and collaborations