4. The Results of

Desegregation

"All the Teachers Are White Now"

Although the standards of desegregation are being articulated with increasing precision in a growing body of judicial law, the problems of desegregation continue to victimize those who have always been victimized. For every new court ruling designed to ensure the constitutional rights of students and teachers, countering evasive techniques are developed. As the process of desegregation moves forward, the absolute number and the percentage of black professionals working in the school systems dwindle. The closer a district moves toward so-called "full compliance," the fewer are the black educators in that district.

As noted earlier, the displacement of black teachers and principals as a painful side effect of desegregation is by no means unique to East Texas; nor is it a new phenomenon in East Texas or elsewhere in Southern and Border states-particularly in the rural and small town districts. It would have been news if the NEA Special Committee had found, during its study, even one single school district where there was any significant amount of faculty desegregation, where the desegregation process had been accomplished equitably and without the release or demotion of black teachers, or where a black principal had been appointed to the principalship of any school with as much as 10 percent white student enrollment.

• Several East Texas districts have had federal funds cut off due to noncompliance with Title VI provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A major source of federal aid to education are the monies appropriated under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964, specifically earmarked for the support of compensatory and enrichment programs for children of low-income families. It is these same children who are most often the victims of federal fund withdrawal.

The Audit Agency of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has found that many school districts, in direct contradiction to the provisions of the Act, have used Title I monies to supplant, rather than to supplement, state and local financing of education in low-income areas. Thus, the withdrawal of Title I funds may result in the discontinuance of special compensatory projects, such as teacher aides, remedial programs, preschool programs, etc., or, it may have the even more serious result of depriving poor white and black students of basic educational programs and services which should have been financed (and are being financed in the middle-income area schools) by state and local allocations. So far, there has been no significant federal action against the misuse of Title I monies. It was not within the authority of this Committee to investigate the extent of such misuse in East Texas; the Committee is aware, however, that this is a problem urgently in need of remedial action-one which, although not confined to the South alone, is most serious in the South.

But the Committee found no such district; instead its findings revealed the continuance of the trend described by the NEA Task Force on Teacher Displacement in 1965:

.. 'white schools' are viewed as having no place for Negro teachers. As a result, when Negro pupils in any number transfer out of Negro schools, Negro teachers become surplus and lose their jobs. It matters not whether they are as well qualified as, or even better qualified than, other teachers in the school system who are retained. Nor does it matter whether they have more seniority. They were not employed as teachers for the school system-as the law would maintain-but as teachers for Negro schools.

Black educators-present and former staff members of East Texas schools— reported to the NEA Special Committee that even where there has been some acceptance of student desegregation, resistance to the prospect of black principals supervising white teachers or of black teachers for white students remains firmly entrenched in Southern white communities. As a result, black educators are being dismissed, demoted, or "phased out." In large numbers, they are retiring early or resigning, often under the threat of dismissal and a bad reference if they refuse to leave of their own accord. "The black principal," a dismissed principal commented, "is rapidly becoming extinct in East Texas." As dual school systems are eliminated in East Texas, veteran black teachers and teacher education graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain employment in the area. (A staff member of one district asked his superintendent whether there were different employment standards for white and black educators and just what were the qualifications required of black educators. The superintendent responded, "There just may be some standards that they [black teachers] can't measure up to." When asked to be more specific, the superintendent would only repeat: “There just may be some standards that they can't measure up to." The individual who related this incident to the Special Committee said that he was forced to agree that there certainly are some standards of employment in East Texas districts that the black educator can't "measure up to," and chief among them is the standard being ever more rigidly imposed-whiteness of skin.) Another result of desegregation in East Texas with serious implications for the future is the extent to which it deprives black students of any incentive to prepare themselves for entry into the education profession. One student who testified before the Committee said, "When a student sees only white teachers and no Negroes instructing, it makes him wonder why he should push himself to become a teacher if he won't get the chance to teach." Yet traditionally in East Texas, as in other Southern areas, education has been one of the very few professions open to black youth.

DISMISSALS WITHOUT NOTICE, STATEMENT OF
CAUSE, OR HEARING

Texas tenure legislation offers virtually no protection either to the black or white teachers of the state. There is no statutory guarantee against unfair dismissal.

The Continuing Contract Law, enacted in 1967, is permissive in nature. The Legislature has recommended that local boards of education adopt fair dismissal procedures, including the tendering of notice with specific statement of cause, the right to a hearing upon request, and the right of appeal to the state education agency and the courts. Moreover, the Texas Legislature has stated and defined the grounds comprising just cause for dismissal and has recommended that dismissal resulting from necessary reduction of personnel shall be in reverse order of seniority in the specific teaching field. But local boards of education are under no legal obligation to adopt the recommended policies. Few of them have done so. The Special Committee had extensive meetings with educators whose dismissal had coincided with the desegration of their district. Many of these individuals reported that they had received no notification in writing, that they had received no statement of cause, and that they had not been afforded dismissal hearings by their boards of education.

Two teachers (after 5 and 11 years' employment respectively in their district) were informed that their services were no longer needed when the superintendent opened the door to their classrooms while they were teaching and told them, “The Board voted last night not to renew your contract." Attempts by each teacher to obtain a statement of reasons or a written nonrenewal notice were to no avail. In another situation, although there was no statement of just cause, the reason for dismissal was made quite clear: The black teachers were called together by their superintendent and informed that the district was about to desegregate, that their school would be closed, and that the white community was "not ready" to accept Negro teachers. As a result, they too lost their positions.

In one community that has undergone complete "integration" of its schools, the black principals, the black teachers, the black janitors, the black bus drivers, and the black cafeteria employees have all disappeared. The black school has been abandoned. The only black employee still remaining with the school system is a grass cutter. In this community, there were no written statements of grounds for dismissal; there were no board hearings; the black employees were simply told that they were no longer needed.

Seven black teachers were dismissed from another district when the schools were desegregated. When their black principal asked the superintendent to reconsider the dismissal action, the principal was informed that he, too, would no longer be employed. In this instance, as in many other reported dismissal cases, the teachers and principal had been issued contracts containing the clause that reemployment for the coming year was "subject to placement." And in this instance, as in others, white teachers were employed following the release of the black teachers. The dismissed principal reported that although there were now about seven white teachers in black schools of the district, there were no black teachers in desegregated, formerly all-white schools.

Educators from two East Texas communities reported that since the advent of desegregation in their system, school officials have consistently "overhired" white personnel. They felt that the motivation was to ensure a sufficient supply of white staff members to compensate for any turnover in black professional staff, whether through retirement, resignation, or dismissal.

"GROUNDS FOR DISMISSAL"

A common method of releasing black teachers is to inform them that the ADA (average daily attendance) has fallen and that the staff must be cut. Some of the districts have experienced an overall enrollment increase during the same years that black teachers have been released due to a "lowered ADA." In interviews with school administrators, staff assistants to the Special Committee inquired why, since there had been no overall loss in student population, the Negro teachers were "leaving." (The administrators would not accept the word fired.) The most frequent administrative responses were "for personal reasons," "for better jobs," and "retirement" or "family moving." In some instances, the superintendent announced other reasons, such as "poor attitude" or "immorality." One superintendent said, "They were not qualified for this district." One principal summed up the feeling that black teachers and principals have had since desegregation: "Why is it that some of us have been qualified for 10, 15, or 20 years and suddenly, with desegregation, we are no longer qualified?"

Testimony indicated that in districts where black schools have been closed or have lost enrollment through desegregation and school officials have released black teachers (including those with long seniority and master's degrees), white teachers with less experience and preparation (some without certification) have been employed to take care of the increased number of pupils in the newly desegregated schools. Where there have been bona fide "necessary reductions in staff,” the seniority rule has not been followed when the senior man happens to be black.

TEACHERS IN POLITICS

The Fifty-Seventh Texas Legislature (1961) adopted a law providing that—

No school district, Board of Education, superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, or other administrator shall directly or indirectly coerce any teacher to refrain from participating in political affairs in his community, state or nation.

The State Board of Education adopted a corollary policy in 1961, instructing the Commissioner of Education to review any proven violation of Section 8 of Senate Bill No. 1 (above) "in accordance with his responsibility to cancel the administrative certificate of any person failing to administer the schools in accordance with the laws of the state."

Witnesses who appeared before the Special Committee expressed the conviction that many black educators have lost their positions because of their participation in such activities as voter registration drives. One witness testified, "I brought some of the voters from the Negro community to the polls. The next thing I know, they don't need my services next year."

In direct contradiction to state law, one East Texas board of education adopted a policy prohibiting its professional employees from participating in any form of political activity except voting. Following that action of the board, the effectiveness of political campaigning and voter registration activities among the black community succeeded in placing, for the first time, two black citizens on the board of education. Nine teachers, including several who had taken an active part in the political campaign, were dismissed the following year when black students were transferred from their school to a desegregated school.*

PHASING-OUT DEVICES

In some districts, the Special Committee learned, school officials are more subtle in ridding their desegregated systems of black teachers or at least in reducing the contact that these teachers will have with white students. Black educators are transferred to the formerly all-white schools; but they may be assigned to a subject out of their field and then dismissed because of "inability to carry out assigned duties." Or they may be assigned to a federally funded program, and when the federal funds are withdrawn or exhausted, it is the black teacher who is dismissed. In most cases where black teachers are retained in desegregated schools, they are assigned as "special teachers" to classes with primarily black enrollment, or as counselors, working mostly with black students, or as librarians-or to other such positions entailing minimal contact with white students.

Black principals who are retained when their schools are closed are not retained as principals. They may be made assistant principals or they may be assigned to a central office position with undefined responsibilities, with low visibility, and with no authority.

WHO ARE THE "CROSS-OVER TEACHERS?"

The observations of the NEA Special Committee in East Texas tended to support the conclusions of a recent research study by Dr. Clifton Claye of Texas Southern University, "The Problems of Cross-Over Teachers." As a result of his survey of black and white teachers who had transferred to schools where the majority of the student population was of a different race than their own, Dr. Claye

Litigation supported by the NEA DuShane Emergency Fund for Teacher Rights has culminated in a federal court decision (Montgomery, et al. v. White, et al., Tatum Independent School District, Civil Action No. 4933, U.S. District Court, Eastern Division, Tatum, Texas, 1969), ordering the reinstatement and awarding of damages to one of these teachers on the grounds that his dismissal constituted a violation of the teacher's due process and fair consideration guarantees under the U.S. Constitution.