In the 1950s, America's public schools teemed with the promise of a new, postwar generation of students, over half of whom would graduate and go on to college. This program shows how impressive gains masked profound inequalities: seventeen states had segregated schools; 1% of all Ph. D.s went to women; and "separate but equal" was still the law of the land. Interviews with Linda Brown Thompson and other equal rights pioneers bring to life the issues...

Published to coincide with the PBS special on public education, this collection of writings by the nation's most renowned historians of education chronicles the story of America's grand experiment in public education.