"Any student who dared to really learn anything was called "oreo cookie", "Uncle Tom", "race traitor", and even "white m***** f*****". And that was from the "faculty" and administration."
As cynical and jaded as I am, I find that very hard to believe.
That did indeed occur when I was at New Jersey Institute of Technology (formerly Newark College of Engineering) in the 1970's. The claim at the inner city schools was that children living in inner cities could not be expected to achieve academic standards due to the stress of racism and poverty. Any student at such a school who dared to apply himself academically was going against the grain of the official propaganda. A few more points of reference: Further south on High Street was a storefront operation of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoy Jones, formerly poet laureate of New Jersey). Across the street is Rutgers University Newark Campus, also home of an active chapter of the Students Revolutionary Brigade, a Maoist group. Plenty of leftist influence. Newark Central was a prime example of an inner city public school that had sold out to a radical left agenda, at the expense of the students.
After a while some of the parents (yes, some did get involved in their children's schooling) decided enough, and raised a big stink. In the end, Newark Science High School was started in the old Teirnan Hall of NJIT. Get the kids who wanted to learn out of the sewer of Central High. And yes, advanced placement courses were offered. I walked by Newark Science High daily when walking from the NJIT campus to the Lackawanna train station.