In
The Quest for Citizenship, Kim Cary Warren examines the
formation of African American and Native American citizenship,
belonging, and identity in the United States by comparing
educational experiences in Kansas between 1880 and 1935. Warren
focuses her study on Kansas, thought by many to be the
quintessential free state, not only because it was home to sizable
populations of Indian groups and former slaves, but also because of
its unique history of conflict over freedom during the antebellum
period.
After the Civil War, white reformers opened segregated schools,
ultimately reinforcing the very racial hierarchies that they
claimed to challenge. To resist the effects of these reformers'
actions, African Americans developed strategies that emphasized
inclusion and integration, while autonomy and bicultural identities
provided the focal point for Native Americans' understanding of
what it meant to be an American. Warren argues that these
approaches to defining American citizenship served as ideological
precursors to the Indian rights and civil rights movements.
This comparative history of two nonwhite races provides a revealing
analysis of the intersection of education, social control, and
resistance, and the formation and meaning of identity for minority
groups in America.