Decreased Employment of Black American Teachers: 1940-1980

• In Event: Roundtable Session 66
  In Roundtable Session: Topics in African American Education During the Postwar Era

Abstract

This paper quantitatively examines the experience of southern black teachers after desegregation and identifies specific states in which they were most affected by desegregation. The research question is: In which Southern states were fewer black students taught by black teachers, and how did this change between 1940 and 1980?

Theoretical Framework
By the 1980s, schools were integrated, civil rights increased, and industrialization and other technological changes had increased opportunities in the region. As a result, the total population of the South increased in the postwar era. The concentration of blacks in the South, growing population, and expanding desegregated school system with growing enrollment makes the region a central point of study of black teachers.

Empirical Context and Analysis
Data
I used census data for the years of 1940, 1960, 1970, and 1980 obtained from IPUMS-USA. The year 1940 serves as the comparison year because it is a year of a dual school system, and 1960-1980 are the years after Brown (1954) and after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Methodology
Sixteen southern states were divided into three subregions: Deep South, Upper South, and Border States. To investigate the varying levels of black teacher employment, a fixed-effects regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between subregion, decade, and black teacher employment. A fixed-effects analysis minimizes estimation bias due to the omitted time invariant factors such as a state’s cultural tradition, and other such unobserved attributes.
Findings
After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the [black students-to-black teacher] ratio increased in all three subregions, however, by a lesser degree in the Upper South and Border States compared to the Deep South. The [black students-to-black teacher] ratio significantly increased in the Deep South by approximately 13 students by 1960 and then again by approximately 31 students by 1970 (see Table 3.1). By 1970, the relative presence of black teachers decreased the most in the Deep South followed by the Upper South and Border States. Overall, this ratio increased across the South after Brown (1954). The results confirm the prevailing insight that the racial composition of the teacher labor force became increasingly white after desegregation. From a conventional standpoint, this was largely attributed to the dismissal of black teachers after desegregation. However, as Table 3.2 indicates, black teachers gained jobs, not lost jobs, although not at the same rate as white teachers.

Conclusion
Compared to the Upper South and Border States, the Deep South experienced the greatest ratio increases; by 1970, more black students were going to racially mixed schools in these states, where there more white teachers. With the increased population in the South, and the expansion of their school system, the findings also show that the absolute number of black and white teachers increased across the region. Therefore, the post-desegregation South experienced a relative loss of black teachers, not an absolute loss of black teachers. The relative loss of black teachers added to the general whitening of the southern teacher labor force

Author

• Aarti Bajaj Judd, University of Missouri - Kansas City