It begins with a hand raised in a classroom. In pre-K, a Black child, eager and knowledgeable, waits. The teacher’s gaze sweeps past—again and again—as if the child is invisible. And when her parents addressed this with the teacher, they were told “Your daughter is too outspoken. Um, she’s too, too strong. She uses words that are too big. She’s just too much.” A teacher in elementary school complained to the parents of the same child “If she didn’t use such big words, and if she weren’t, you know, so assertive, more people would like her.” This was in the early 2000s.
And this is not the story of one teacher or one moment. It echoes Black students’ experiences over the decades in an exclusionary system, from the denial of literacy under enslavement to the celebrated but flawed Princeton Plan of 1948, which desegregated Princeton schools. For our community to engage in a dialogue on reparations, an urgent site of repair is our public schools. True reparations require more than acknowledgment; they demand correction of systemic harms that have, for generations, denied Black children an equal education and pushed Black educators out. This is the work of healing not just the past, but our shared future.
A History of Exclusion: From Betsey Stockton to the Princeton Plan
Ever since Princeton’s founding, African Americans have faced inferior educational opportunities, even outright denial. In the early 19th century, Betsey Stockton, a formerly enslaved woman, the founder of Princeton’s first school for Black children, enabled Black children’s education through her own labor and vision. For more than a century, her legacy lived in the Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children: a hub of academic excellence and cultural pride, created by and for the Black community, staffed by Black educators who knew their students and believed in them. It was, by every account of those who attended it, an institution of genuine excellence — built under conditions of injustice and segregation.
This legacy was disrupted in 1948 by the Princeton Plan, following the mandate of the 1947 New Jersey Constitution. Hailed as a model of desegregation, the process was generally seen as swift and smooth by the town’s white parents, though some white families sent their children to private schools rather than to the multiracial public schools. Princeton’s Black population viewed the change with misgivings. They lamented the loss of community and mentorship that the all-Black neighborhood schools had provided. At the desegregated schools, Black students often faced low academic expectations and their families had to fight for them to be placed on the college track.
In addition, students lost mentors and the district suffered from a diminished number of Black educational leaders. As Dr. Joy Barnes-Johnson, who taught at Princeton High School for many years, told us, “Many educators of color continue to have a difficult time, and many leave.” “The legacy of teachers being pushed out… is the legacy we never grappled with,” reflected another Princeton High School teacher.
The Broken Promise: The Enduring Legacy
Desegregation did not mean equity. Black students entered classrooms facing prejudice, low expectations, and a school environment where Black culture was considered inferior. Black students were deprived of trusted guides. The predominantly white teaching corps remained insulated from diverse perspectives. A culture of low expectations was instilled that persists even today. And white students lost opportunities to experience Black teachers as authority figures and role models.
Oral histories of Black Princetonians who attended schools in the early phases of desegregation, many of which are available in videos and in Kathryn Watterson’s book, I Hear My People Singing, provide ample evidence of this.
- Henry Pannell, who attended the Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children through fourth grade, had this to say: “We were just like a big family. That was one of the best educations you could get, even though it was segregated, even though we had second-class books. They [the teachers] were dedicated to seeing that we got the best education.” About his experience post-desegregation, “The way those [white] teachers treated us, I’ll never forget. They wouldn’t call on you, they ignored you, and you knew that they didn’t want you there.“
- Kathleen Edwards noted, “We had [white] teachers we would tell our dreams and everything, and they would tell us, “‘I don’t know why you are wasting your time with that because you are not going to amount to anything’ and ‘They don’t hire blacks for so and so.’”
- Shirley Satterfield, a Princeton historian and educator, who also began her education at the Witherspoon School for Colored Children, commented that her teachers taught her to be proud and “to understand the history of our people.” Post 1948, she notes, “The education for some reason seemed to go down a little bit when they integrated the schools, and it was especially felt in the high school because we [all students] were tracked – Business, Industrial, and Academic – and for whatever reason we were not put in the academic classes, our parents had to come and tell them that we wanted to be in academic and be prepared for college.” She summarized, “While there was integration on the outside, there was segregation on the inside.”
Their experiences describe, with painful precision, exactly what developmental researchers have since documented: children as young as kindergarten age sense when a teacher doesn’t believe in them. Often, by the time they’re in upper elementary and middle school, that signal has been internalized. Within three years of Princeton’s school desegregation, Black students’ college attendance and graduation rates declined.
What might have been: A co-created architecture for true integration
The Princeton Plan succeeded to the extent that Black and white children began sharing the same physical space in schools. What it did not achieve was true integration, which would have required equal participation from both the Black and white communities.
Before 1948, The Witherspoon School was a Black professional center with Black principals, Black teaching staff, and community-rooted educational leadership. After the implementation of the Princeton Plan, the high-functioning Black professional ecosystem was dispersed into a much larger, white-dominated system. Lack of understanding of the importance of Black educators and administrators in multiracial schools resulted in Black educators losing their prior authority and representation at all levels of staffing and management. The cultural and community scaffolding that was foundational for effectively running schools for Black students disappeared. Additionally, the large disparity in economic conditions of the two communities was not taken into account, thus compounding the effects.
There was no concerted attempt to change the racial biases of white educators and school personnel in what was essentially a segregated town. True integration would have required formal racial literacy and equity training. By reaching out and building relationships with the African American community, white teachers could have informed themselves of the economic and social environments of their Black students and the community support structures that had enabled them to thrive in the Black-only schools. Such information could have helped them develop similar support structures in the integrated schools in partnership with the community to adequately address student needs.
It could have been different: a multi-racial faculty with equal levels of authority and institutional status and resources allocated to meet the different needs of the diverse student body. This was a missed opportunity for co-creating a transformative system.
Addressing a Two-Tiered System
The negative consequences of Princeton’s school policies and programs since 1948 are still visible despite community and District efforts.
Grassroots groups like The Robeson Group pressured the district to address racial disparities. Committed and Faithful Princetonians, which provided biweekly social and educational support, was founded in 2004 and operated by Fern and Larry Spruill until 2018. Recognizing the whole person in each individual, the organization spoke directly to the needs of youth and provided a safe, nurturing space for all students. By building relationships between the African American community and the authority figures confronted by the youth, e.g., teachers and police, it was possible to foster better understanding and deescalate situations preventing unwarranted and adverse consequences for the youth. In 2020, Princeton Parents for Black Children was created with the goal of improving educational opportunity, access and outcomes for all Black children. Black parents on their own have long advocated for their children’s achievements to be recognized and for their children to be enrolled in academic tracks and on sports teams.
Within the schools themselves, system initiatives included PULSE (Pride, Unity, Leadership, Sisterhood, Esteem), a young women’s empowerment group established by guidance counselor Shirley Satterfield, which continues to this day. A Gospel singing group was also created at the high school. The Board of Education created the former Minority Student Education Committee to advise them on issues. Student-led groups like the Multicultural Student Achievement Network (MSAN) “build the capacity of students and educators to improve the educational experiences and outcomes of students of color by learning and leading together.” The Diversity Council and annual Day of Dialogue are led by student groups for the purpose of increasing visibility of multicultural student groups within PHS and to educate other students about the rich diversity within the school.
The district also responded to the mandate of the state’s Amistad Commission and included African American history in its curricula. Student activism won Black and Hispanic History Month assemblies during the school day. Initiatives like the Racial Literacy Course emerged from student advocacy and resulted in a full-term course being offered as an elective, in lieu of which students must complete a shorter, online version as a graduation requirement.
During the 2017-2018 school year, the Princeton Public School District made a concerted effort to address inequities by undertaking an equity audit to examine barriers to access and achievement, including those stemming from bias. The superintendent’s letter issued with the report at the conclusion of the audit stated “This report must and will lead to action. . . . The work ahead of us to diversify our curriculum, diversify our staff, overcome bias, and foster inclusion is not easy or quick.” The district supported related trainings for school personnel for a few years. The ROARE Center at PHS (Resource Office for Access, Renewal and Equity) was created as a safe space for students of color and different ethnicities, a venue for PULSE meetings and other programming. The space for The ROARE Center was subsequently repurposed as a classroom.
We acknowledge the district’s efforts toward achieving racial equity following the audit. As is stated on the Princeton Public Schools’ equity webpage, A Commitment to Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion, “We are committed to identifying and dismantling racism and all other systems that lead to disparate outcomes for our students.” However, to what extent have the Equity Audit Report’s recommendations been implemented and what has been the result? Evidence of persistent problems exist and no systematic analysis and assessment has been issued by the district. Over representation of Black and Brown students in Special Education continues as does under representation of Black students in Advanced Placement courses. Black teachers and administrators describe a climate marked by microaggressions and limited support.
Princeton’s high-pressure culture amplifies economic disparities. Affluent families invest in tutors, outside coaches, music lessons and enrichment; lower-income families, disproportionately Black and Brown, cannot. This creates a two-tiered experience within the same schools. “The equity audit”, a teacher in the Princeton school system warns, ”risks becoming just an old page on the website.” “We talk a great game,” says former Township Mayor and Board of Education member Michele Tuck-Ponder, “but we don’t deliver. If we don’t deliver for the least of us, then we are a failing school district.”
Joyce Trotman-Jordan, educator and Board Member of Not In Our Town Princeton, reflected, “Looking back at my own life experiences, remembering the stories of our elders, watching how they interacted with the “white establishment” bears witness to their ingenuity and creativity. Strategically maneuvering everyday life situations trying not to disrupt the “status quo” all while passing down the knowledge necessary for our continued existence. Our oral history and stories are ones of survival in the name of love for human-kind.”
A Blueprint for Repair: Education as Reparations
Educational reparations are not symbolic. They are the active, institutionalized repair of broken systems for the benefit of the entire community. For Princeton, this means all the communities working together to decide jointly on all aspects of the school – programs, resources, staffing, etc. It includes moving to demonstrable, funded acts of systemic transformation, such as:
- Investing in Retention, Not Just Recruitment: Creating a supportive, affirming environment for Black educators with clear leadership pathways.
- Preparing Teachers Beyond Curricula: Creating and administering trainings in topics related to racial, social and economic environments, i.e., the lived realities of students and communities in Princeton
- Mandating and Funding Truth-Telling: Fully implementing the Amistad mandate with a robust, district-wide K-12 curriculum that includes Princeton’s own racial history.
- Ending the Tracking Trap: Auditing and reforming Special Education and advanced course placement to eliminate racial disproportionality. Providing universal, proactive academic support.
- Proactively Resource Equity Initiatives: Funding tutors, enrichment, and mental health services as universal supports, reducing the advantage of private wealth.
- Valuing the Whole Child: Fostering a school culture that prizes socio-emotional health, identity, and civic belonging as much as test scores.
Transforming our Schools: The Stakes for Our Community
This work transcends any single group. It is about the health of our democracy and the strength of our town. When Black students are tracked out of opportunity, our collective potential is diminished. When Black educators are pushed out, our schools are impoverished. Transforming our schools is one way to heal our community and make good on the unfulfilled promise of true integration.
The raised hand is still waiting. The child in that pre-K classroom — told she was too much, too outspoken, too strong — was not too much. She was exactly what this town’s schools should have been built to value. Transforming the system so that hand is always seen, called on, believed in: that is the repair Princeton owes. Let’s all get to work.
Trotman-Jordan concluded, “What we’ve shared may be painful to some, however, in order to grow and move forward we must acknowledge the past, take ownership of the harms committed and be willing to build a better future together.”
Sources:
Princeton & Slavery | The Princeton Plan
The Princeton Plan: 70 Years of School Integration Panel Exhibition
I Hear My People Singing: Voices of African American Princeton, by Kathryn Watterson, published in 2017
Interviews with individuals affiliated with the Princeton school system, past and present; roles included students, educators, parents, counselors, advocates for students, and a Board of Education member.
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/21/archives/princetons-lesson-school-integration-is-not-enough
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/nyregion/the-achievement-gap-in-elite-schools.html
Princeton’s Public Schools: A History
“This is Princeton”, article in Town Topics (Princeton), May 1, 1969 : Internet Archive
“Across Nassau Street: In stories of black Princeton: Racism, yes; but community and pride”. Across Nassau Street | Princeton Alumni Weekly
Princeton Public Schools Equity webpage
A presentation in July 2018 by a representative of the organization that conducted the audit and created The Racial Equity Audit Report can be viewed here (starts at 15 minute mark).