Contrasting Patterns in Black School Politics: Atlanta and Memphis, 1865-1985

Abstract

Scholars have paid relatively little attention to the participation of African Americans in school politics in the urban South. Some notable incidents have been recounted, and patterns of inequality between Black and White schools have been documented, but the kinds of synthetic historical accounts of growth and change in the educational opportunities available to Black children that have recently been produced for several northern cities are still lacking for most southern cities (Homel, 1990). In an earlier article we presented such an account of Black school politics in Atlanta (GA), in which we identified a pattern of changes in the immediate goals and tactics adopted by African American leaders in their century-long effort to win better schools for their community (Plank & Turner, 1987). In the present article we contrast Black school politics in Atlanta with those in Memphis (TN) and show how the divergent political structures of the two cities produced very different sets of opportunities and constraints for African Americans in the two cities. As in Atlanta, Black leaders in Memphis adapted their goals and tactics to the changing political circumstances of their community; yet, because the political histories of the two cities are very different, the patterns of interaction between Black leaders and the public school system are proven to be dramatically different as well. The crucial difference between Black school politics in Atlanta and in Memphis involves the participation of African Americans in city politics. From the start, White politics in Atlanta were organized around Black exclusion. A Black Republican, William Finch, was elected to the Atlanta city council in 1871, but thereafter no Blacks held public office in that city until the 1960s. Divisions in the White electorate sometimes allowed Blacks to play a role in local elections in the years immediately following the Civil War, but the ensuing competition for Black votes was universally decried among Whites. The institution of a White primary in 1892 brought an effective end to Black political participation in Atlanta, and it was only on the rare occasions when meaningful citywide elections were held (e.g., mayoral recall, bond referenda) that Blacks enjoyed real power (Plank & Turner, 1987; Turner, 1990).