Desegregating Teachers—Contesting the Meaning of Equality of Educational Opportunity in the South Post Brown

Desegregating Teachers: Contesting the Meaning of Equality of Educational Opportunity in the South post Brown explores the battle to desegregate public school teachers in the South. It also considers the implications of linking racially balanced school faculties to equal educational opportunities for African American students. This book demonstrates that the legal struggle to desegregate teachers and other school personnel is critical to understanding the politics of school desegregation in the South and perhaps elsewhere. Its premise is that the status of educators – far from being at the margins of the desegregation story – was central in shaping the desegregation process and outcomes. This is important today as student populations became largely resegregated. To capture the dynamics of faculty desegregation at the district level, this book explores the process in two distinct southern metropolitan areas: Jackson, Mississippi and Tampa, Florida. This is an important book for researchers, professors, and pre-service teachers.

Barbara J. Shircliffe has a PhD in social foundations and is a faculty member at the University of South Florida. Her scholarship focuses on the history of segregation and desegregation, oral history, and school policy.