The Agony of Education: Black Students at a White University

Do black and white students attending a predominantly white institution receive the same education? What challenge confront black students in their pursuit of higher education?
Based on focus-group interviews conducted with black students and parents concerning their experiences with one major university, as well as published and unpublished studies of the black experience at predominantly white universities across the nation, The Agony of Education captures the painful dilemmas and ugly realities African Americans must face about college education in contemporary society.
The Agony of Education probes the choices and trade-off facing African-American students attending an historically white university: psychologically (un)supportive classroom and campus settings, administrative barriers, recruitment and retention, white faculty and white students. Documenting the continuing legacy of racism in one of its most insidious forms, The Agony of Education defends the need for a more vigorous form of multicultural education on college campuses.

Joe R. Feagin is Graduate Research Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida.