We Shall Not Bow Down

An eloquent and passionate call for educational transformation.

“An unapologetic cri de coeur about the shortcomings of the schools that serve poor Black and Hispanic children, and thus, the moral failure of the nation to end the inequality [Kozol] has documented for decades.” —New York Times

In We Shall Not Bow Down, legendary educator and bestselling author Jonathan Kozol confronts the extreme and unabated racial segrega­tion in our public schools and the regimen of punitive control that denies Black and Latino children the power of independent and creative thinking that is still more likely to be encouraged in more privileged communities.

Returning to the schools where he worked with children and their teachers for more than fifty years, Kozol reports that separate and unequal education is now at its highest level since the early 1980s. Children of color, Kozol says, are frequently deemed to be a different class of child than students in the mainstream of the nation and are being prepared to accept a subordinate role in the corporate economy. And he directly confronts the far-right’s assault on education and any remain­ing semblance of diversity and equal opportunity.

At this dangerous political moment, Kozol argues—in this greatly expanded paperback edition of his 2024 hardcover, An End to Inequality—that it’s well past time for militant resistance on the part of decent citizens. Kozol is old enough to remember “the promissory note” that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. To some, it may seem an impossible dream, but Kozol believes it is still a goal worth fighting for.

“Jonathan Kozol is without doubt one of the most important thought leaders on the past present and future of public education in America…. I am painfully aware that this may be the last great book from this great thinker which is all the more reason we should pore over every single page relishing not only the beauty of his writing and the stories he shares but also the delightful way in which he interacts with even the most vulnerable children.”
—from the introduction by Randi Weingarten, author of Why Fascists Fear Teachers