Desegregation of State NEA Affiliates in the South

State and local education associations hold a critically important position in public education because it has been largely controlled by state and local units of government. In this paper the role of the state NEA affiliates of the South in the desegregation controversy will be discussed. It will be demonstrated that the position of the state units remained cautious or basically opposed to integration throughout the ten years under consideration. The tradition of segregation made discrimination possible, thus giving the white population a vested interest in separationl The white state and local organizations supported integration only when Federal action made it beneficial for theni to do so. The instances when the state associations took strong stands against local and state governments were exclusively those in which their own material interests were at stake; namely when a threat to close the public schools existed or when members were dismissed or threatened with dismissal because of the desegregation controversy

Desegregation · Geography · Political science · State (computer science) · Critical Race Theory in Education · Mathematics · Public Administration · Race, History, and American Society · School Choice and Performance