Forgotten Voices of Black Educators: Critical Race Perspectives on the Implementation of a Desegregation Plan

Abstract

The conceptualization and implementation of desegregation educational policies are incomplete when they ignore the voices of Black educators. Through in-depth interviews with 21 African American educators in St. Louis, this article highlights how elements of what is being defined today as critical race theory were embedded in these educators' analyses of a 1983 court settlement that resulted in a 16-year desegregation plan. Through rich and detailed accounts, these educators illustrate how the desegregation plan ultimately protected the overall interests of Whites. Their analyses of the plan-seemingly pessimistic-were realistic. The ending of the plan in 1999 continued to place the onus on Black people to rectify the inequitable education in the city. Suggested is the need for courts and policy makers to begin listening to the voices of African American educators when framing educational policies' intent on improving the education of African American students.

Teacher bias in elementary school and the factors that aid it.

“…While there is some literature that describes the experiences of African American students' integration into white schools where they were regarded as unfit, there is very little literature that documents the historical experiences of African American teachers before and after segregation. That category is that which details the experiences of the African American teachers during the process of desegregation (Morris 2001). The question of why this potentially informative aspect is left out of the history is one that can be very troubling.…”

“…The purpose of integration was to have shared educational opportunities and amenities (same facilities, teachers, and extracurricular activities) for all children, but the purpose of integration has been spun as if it was just to save the African American children from their inadequate schools. Engaging in such rhetoric has alienated the experiences of the African American teachers and the possible impact they had on African American education prior to segregation and in general (Diamond 2006, Morris 2001, Walker 2000.…”

“…Information regarding the experiences of African American teachers in segregated schools can speak to how stereotypes and misinformation concerning alleged inferior student experiences were mitigated (Morris 2001, Walker 2000. The African American teachers had a different view of the purpose of segregated schools, which was to maintain white superiority over education (Morris 2001).…”

“…The African American teachers had a different view of the purpose of segregated schools, which was to maintain white superiority over education (Morris 2001). After Southern African American public schools as a system were co-opted by whites, whites then had the ability to justify and/or invent "real education" --since they controlled the overall institution of education itself (Anderson 1988).…”

“…According to this scholarship, it is important to accept the idea that the United States' education system is built around racist assumptions, and to attack that system one must first acknowledge that the institution itself was built on racist foundations (Diamond 2006, Ladson-Billings 1998, Morris 2001, Thompson 1997, Walker 2000, Walker 2001). Further, Thompson (1997) suggest that failure to reeducate society about those racist undertones gives the appearance that our society still agrees with those negative ideas and beliefs.…”