Repairing Democracy: How the American Federation of Teachers Challenged Segregationists in the Early Cold War, 1946-1965

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 5:25 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Resisting Constraints: Academic Freedom, Teacher Unions, and the Fight for Democracy (Table 2)

Abstract

The promotion of democracy has been consistently used as a rationale for American public schools. Advocates heralded public schools as essential instilling citizens with republican virtue and democratic habits. The Cold War made this ideal role of public schools an imperative. Communism threatened the survival of democracy. Education was promoted as the answer. After the Brown decisions (1954, 1955), public education took center stage in the political drama over desegregation. The AFT took a liberal position on civil rights. The AFT eliminated segregated locals, protected teachers from segregationists’ massive resistance, and joined civil rights activists in calling for the immediate integration. AFT leaders promoted their liberal stance both to recruit teachers to the union and to attack the more conservative NEA.

Author

• Paul T. Boone, Trinidad State College