Standing High among the Whites
Race, Class, and Teaching in the New South
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3609631 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan Daniel Wells (0000-0002-9882-9196, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 109 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 30-52 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1548-1867 • E-ISSN: 2153-5086 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/728240 |
| OpenAlex | W4394939138 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
In the decades following the end of the Civil War, Black southerners asserted their right to enter the legal, medical, and educational professions, understanding that higher education would vault them out of poverty and farm work and into a small but growing Black middle class. Mining underutilized primary sources such as the Southern Workman magazine, this essay argues that emerging middle-class Black professionals solidified their personal financial and social advancement by joining with others across the region, forming medical associations, dental associations, business-minded alliances, and ministerial conferences. In educational associations at state and local levels, Black teachers facilitated professionalization by elevating standards for teaching, supporting licensure requirements, and backing continued training even after licensure. Despite persistent hardships and ever-present racism, southern Black teachers felt that their profession was akin to a religious mission, one that provided them with a modicum of status and salary above sharecroppers, tenant farmers, or day laborers
Mathematics education · Sociology · Computer Science · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society · Artificial Intelligence
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |