Andrew Lefkowits

Caregiver Organizing for Equity and Justice through the Practice of Anti-Racist Integration

Through outreach, community building, and advocacy, Integrated Schools mobilizes families – particularly those with racial, economic, or educational privilege – to practice antiracist school integration. We envision a racially and socioeconomically integrated public school system in which power and resources are shared equitably, humanity is valued unconditionally, and all communities reap the benefits. At the core of this vision is a commitment on the part of families with racial or economic privilege to prioritize antiracist integration in their family’s personal choices and practices, in supporting policies grounded in antiracism, and in driving new narratives around parenting, race, and education.

Integrated Schools was founded as a response to the fact that white people created the problem and thus bear a particular responsibility to redress the harms of school segregation. Therefore, the materials and resources we share have largely been developed by and for white people. As a grassroots collective of families, Integrated Schools is committed to living fully into the antiracist values that orient the work that we are doing. We want this to be a place for all who are committed to dismantling anti-Black racism in their families, communities, and schools.

Our breakout session would give a brief overview of the waves of school desegregation and massive resistance, the history of our movement and theory of change, and a Q&A about organizing caregivers, particularly those with racial or economic privilege for liberation in order to redress the imbalance of power in our systems of education.

Speakers: Anna Lodder, Dr Val Brown, Andrew Lefkowits