Thousands of black teachers lost jobs
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
In the spring of 1953, with the Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court, Wendell Godwin, superintendent of schools in Topeka, sent letters to black elementary school teachers. Painfully polite, the letters couldn't mask the message: If segregation dies, you will lose your jobs.
"Our Board will proceed on the assumption that the majority of people in Topeka will not want to employ negro teachers next year for White children," he wrote.
A year later, the high court declared segregation unconstitutional. Over the next 20 years, thousands of black educators in Topeka and elsewhere lost their jobs. Researchers say the firings decimated the black teaching force and educational tradition, helping set the stage for decades of poor performance by black students.
It's a little-known and unintended consequence of the ruling, but observers say the nation is still paying the price. "By and large, this culture of black teaching died with Brown ," says Vanessa Siddle Walker of Emory University, author of Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South.
In 1954, about 82,000 black teachers were responsible for teaching 2 million black children. In the 11 years immediately following Brown, more than 38,000 black teachers and administrators in 17 Southern and border states lost their jobs.
In Arkansas, for instance, virtually no black educators were hired in desegregated districts from 1958 to 1968. In Texas, 5,000 "substandard" white teachers were employed, while certified black teachers "were told to go into other lines of work," says Carol Karpinski, an independent researcher and New York City educator.
Black principals fared even worse. By some estimates, 90% lost their jobs in 11 Southern states. Many were fired, and others retired. Still others lost their jobs for minor transgressions, such as failing to hold monthly fire drills. Those who stayed often were demoted to assistant principal or to coaching or teaching jobs. Others were offered clerical or even janitorial work.
In 1964, Florida had black principals in all 67 school districts. Ten years later, with integration underway and the black school-aged population growing, only 40 districts had black principals.
In North Carolina, the number of black principals dropped from 620 to 40 from 1967 to
