Three inequality projects in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee

Despite the best intentions, many projects that seek to alleviate inequality instead appear to re-enact the inequities with new regalia. This research published in the Journal of Management Studies, offers a historical review of 166 years of the Memphis and Shelby County school systems in Tennessee which have undergone considerable reshuffling of their resources to improve the distribution of educational resources based on income and on race.

The historical account begins with the creation of Memphis City Schools in 1848 by an alderman of the city who successfully challenged the idea that the poor could not and should not be educated. The next inequality project chronicled in this study traces efforts by various actors to challenge black residents’ lack or unequal access to educational opportunities in search of explanations for the continuing inequalities facing black Memphians and Shelbians. Lastly, I review the ways that the suburban school district served as a vehicle to reproduce a segregative order, allowing those opposed to desegregation to maintain an advantage even after they had lost their legal right to the best educational resources.

With this analysis, I uncover how change was enacted, but then further, when it was more or less successful. The framework is based on identifying the types of efforts people carry out as they seek to challenge or reproduce existing inequalities.

Why equal access is not enough to reach equality

A central takeaway is that many interventions are shortsighted. This is in the face of well-established theories suggesting that inequality is as much about unequal distribution of resources as it is about unequal treatment of social groupings. Yet, most reforms and policies still tend to focus on improving access to resources. While resource mobilization is a vital first step required to erode inequalities, there is ample evidence that it is insufficient to effectively and lastingly challenge them. For example, desegregation, which had at its center an equality project of providing equal opportunities to all American citizens, was only temporarily successful in the battle against racial inequalities. Often through busing orders, black students did get access to the same schools and educational resources that had previously been reserved to their white counterparts; yet equal access did not result in equality.

My research indicates that this initial reassignment of access is insufficient as long as the resources the people gain become redefined so as to reassert the initial inequality. To avoid this outcome, I introduce the type of effort needed to assure enduring improvement through investment in what I call valuation work and category work. Valuation work suggests that people seeking to effectively challenge inequalities must engage in promoting the resources they have as the most valuable. Category work consists of grouping individuals in a society in ways that will affect the allocation of resources.

A framework to challenge inequalities

The Memphis schooling context provides a fascinating opportunity to illustrate the importance of moving beyond efforts focused solely on mobilizing resources, and instead of leveraging these resources to act on the unequal treatment of disadvantaged groups. The very creation of public schools in Memphis teaches us that inequalities can be effectively challenged: initially devised as a free option to educate the poor, when only tuition-based schools were available, Memphis City Schools became the best educational option to educate Memphians, valued both by the poor and the rich, and effectively outcompeting the private schools. The success of this inequality project is owed to Memphis City Schools following this framework of (1) resource work, (2) valuation work, and (3) category work.

This study hopes to contribute to empowering people combating inequality, helping them to understand the types of initiatives that need to be undertaken. Specifically, by identifying those initiatives that fall short and why they would fall short, this framework moves away from controversies over who’s to blame in the persistence of inequalities towards empowering people pursuing projects to combat inequalities.