Black Educators in Louisiana-A Question of Survival

Abstract

This paper will deal with the displacement of black educators in Louisiana as a result of desegregation, a decrease in their numbers, and the mechanisms by which they are being displaced. Displacement is defined here as the dismissal of black educators from the school system, or their demotion to less satisfying positions. It is ironic that while black leaders have fought for integration of public schools in the South for years, this fight has brought about displacement. On May 17, 1954, when the Supreme Court handled down its decision of Brown vs. Board of Education, Blacks looked to a new day in education. Blacks had worked for such a decision for a long time, and it was important to them. The public school system had been a means of access to a better way of life in America. It had been a stepping stone to the Great American Dream. But until 1966, the South, for the most part, defied the order to integrate and the movement toward desegregation was slow. Blacks waged extensive legal battles, and in the years that followed, integration of public schools slowly but surely became a way of life (especially for faculty members). However, black educators in the South paid, and are still paying, a price. Black educators are being displaced from the public school systems of the South. In 1965 the National Educational Association, astounded over reports of the fate of black educators in the South, held a series of meetings to establish immediate and long-range plans to halt the massive educational pushout of black educators. What was learned was that,