The Marion Thompson Wright Reader: Edited and with a Biographical Introduction by Graham Russell Gao Hodges

Acclaimed historian Graham Russell Hodges is writing a scholarly, accessible introduction to a modern edition of Marion Thompson Wright’s classic book The Education of Negroes in New Jersey. First published in 1941 by Teachers College Press, then reprinted in facsimile by Arno Press in 1971, Thompson’s book is long out of print, save for a few print-on-demand services. There are fewer than forty copies of the first edition and about one hundred of the 1971 facsimile in American libraries. Such rarity understates the book’s importance. Thompson’s book and her life are significant for the histories of New Jersey, African Americans, local and national, women’s and education history. Hodges will also seek out additional material – published writings, portrait and archival photography – to include in the book as additional biographical material.

Ultimately Hodges’s scholarly edition of Wright’s classic book will underscore the continued relevance of her work. Wright’s study painstakingly showed that even though New Jersey law banning segregation in public education had existed since 1881, segregation in public schools, as elsewhere, existed throughout the state. In cities and towns across the state, African American students were assigned to segregated schools, often close geographically to white institutions but which were miles far below in quality and amenities. There were informal but rigorously enforced bans on black teachers instructing white students.Wright’s insights into the locality of segregation remains highly useful as national and state laws forbid school segregation but local school boards find ways to exclude black students in both northern and southern states. Wright’s studies show how such de facto segregation gradually controls public education.