Freedom of Organization: The Dissolution and Merger of Southern Black Teacher Associations

In 1964, the National Education Association (NEA) ordered southern teacher associations across the Deep South to draft a plan to “merge” racially segregated organizations. The directive, aimed directly to the eleven southern states that refused to merge, threatened the very existence of associations like the Mississippi Association of Teachers, the Alabama State Teachers Association, and the Palmetto Education Association. For generations, these associations articulated notions of active citizenship through professional discourse and provided critical sources of information that educators negotiated and applied in their classrooms. However, the political milieu surrounding the merger and ongoing desegregation efforts dissolved structures of academic and professional support that black educators carefully constructed during segregation. This move precluded professional and racially specific unionization in the 1970s that denied the capital and organization needed to provide a quality education for students of color after the Alexander v. Holmes (1969) decision.