Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on African American Education in Birmingham, Alabama

• In Event: A “Sankofa” Dialogue: Southeastern Scholars Collaborate on Research Focused on African American Education in the U.S. South

Abstract

Objectives or purposes: To discuss how the process and outcomes associated with the author’s 10-year research project focused on historical and contemporary African American education in Birmingham, Alabama compares to similar scholarly endeavors in the Southeastern region.

Perspectives or theoretical framework: This study is framed by theoretical perspectives on the life course (Elder & Giele, 2009), with a special emphasis on generational differences between educators born before, during, and after the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement (Loder-Jackson, 2011, 2012). Given the study sample’s gender parity, theoretical and conceptual perspectives from Patricia Hill Collins’ (2000) seminal work on Black Feminist Thought also frame this study, specifically her conceptualization of the concept, activism.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry: The methods include archival research, oral histories, historical analysis, and auto-ethnography (Clausen, 1998; Denzin, 2013; Hill, 1993). Data from 42 author-generated life stories along with extensive primary and secondary source analyses will be discussed.

Results/substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view: First and foremost, this lengthy project exposed the desperate need for deeper investigations into the role and contributions that African American educators made to the Civil Rights Movement. Based on the author’s analysis of extant primary and secondary sources, findings reveal that educators, who came of age professionally in Birmingham across the eras of the pre- and post-Civil Rights Movement, describe divergent and convergent social and historical contexts which shaped their professionalization as well as their relationships with and perceptions of African American students and parents. Participants across generation theorize that teaching and leading are activist practices in their own right, which entail clandestine support and silent protest, intergenerational bridge-building, and debunking the myth of Black inferiority. Educators born after the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, in particular, expressed ambivalence about their African American students’ futures. The author concludes that multigenerational perspectives should figure more prominently in the scholarship on African American education in the U.S. South, and she will share recommendations for doing so in work undertaken by the roundtable participants (Loder-Jackson, 2011, 2012).

Scientific or scholarly significance of study or work: To date, there is not a scholarly book examining the contributions that African American educators made to the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, and then links their contributions to contemporary dilemmas confronting successive generations of educators and their students. Hopefully, this dialogue will inspire a new body of multigenerational research focused on African American education in the U.S. South, and ultimately, inspire intergenerational dialogue, professional collaboration, and collective action for social change.

Author

• Tondra L. Loder-Jackson, The University of Alabama - Birmingham