Integration for Teachers

On February 22, 2008, I read an article in the Star Ledger called Blackboard Battles. Sixty years from that date schools in New Jersey were integrated based on a new state Constitution that assured black and white students would attend class side by side. The same though was not true for their teachers! A few black students moved from their side of the building to the white side where white teachers taught them. Black teachers stayed on the black side of the building teaching black students who weren’t integrated. According to Wynetta Devore, who grew up in Metuchen, she never had a black teacher until she was in graduate school at Rutgers University in the mid ’70. (She went on to write her doctoral thesis on the education of blacks in New Jersey from 1900-1930.)

I did not think of this prior to this article. I just assumed teachers taught all students. I assumed wrong. Teachers were not integrated sixty years ago, along with their students. Two forces worked against their acceptance. One, black teachers were perceived as less qualified. Second, white teachers were fearful of their job security; these white teachers were fearful of the new competition for their jobs from the black teachers. I feel these African American teachers were robbed of the contributions to the education they could have given to all students. They were unable to share their culture. They were not treated fairly and their essence was questioned. It is very sad to me to read how New Jersey treated its black teachers; I am sure that is why it isn’t found in many current social studies books.