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This article explains how Jim Crow's teachers-former teachers of legally segregated schools for blacks-prepared and motivated disadvantaged students in spite of funding and resource deprivation. According to the author, black teachers fashioned situated pedagogies for the acquisition of educational capital that could be used in exchange for jobs, rights, and social power. Findings reveal three strategies of opportunity which provide some clues to how urban teachers today can educate poor children of color in under-resourced schools, such as generating materials and supplies, situating curriculum and instruction, and mobilizing human resources. The analysis draws upon 44 oral history interviews with former teachers in the coastal plains of North Carolina, as well as secondary historical sources.

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Given the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of E. Franklin Frazier’s award-winning Black Bourgeoisie , this article reconsiders the political nature of a respectability discourse among black teachers in the Jim Crow South.Writing against Frazier’s image of a materialistic and status-addicted black middle class, I argue that the politics of respectability shaped teachers’ perceptions and actions in positive ways. Drawing upon oral history narratives across three counties in the coastal plains of North Carolina, I show how a collective memory of teaching in legally segregated schools for blacks offers a fresh look at “respectable black teachers.” Instead of limiting or constraining black teachers’ work, the politics of respectability actually gave them a sense of purpose and hope to forge ahead.