"This book describes how an ethos of localism and racial exclusion created a perceived and real advantage for suburban school districts in the postwar era, focusing on developments in metropolitan Kansas City"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction : educating the divided metropolis -- Suburban and urban schools : two sides of a national metropolitan coin -- Uniting and dividing a heartland metropolis : growth and inequity in postwar Kansas City -- Fall from grace : the transformation of an urban school system -- Racialized advantage : the Missouri suburban school districts -- Conflict in suburbia : localism, race and education in Johnson County, Kansas -- Epilogue : an enduring legacy of inequality.