| Although the National Education Association (NEA) is a prominent education organization, the studies of the NEA are primarily institutional histories that illustrate its metamorphosis from a professional association to a teacher union. Overshadowed, if not overlooked, in that transformation has been its change to a more racially inclusive organization during the civil rights movement. The Brown decisions prompted a reevaluation of the relationship among educators and with their professional associations. For the NEA, this reassessment included resolving several issues: its policy on integration, a merger with the American Teachers Association (ATA), the status of the dual affiliates, and action on behalf of dismissed, displaced, and demoted black teachers. While Brown accelerated the move to a more equitable status in the NEA, the progression of events began in the 1940's with African American educators taking the initiative.; Educators united by their belief in professionalism, good citizenship, and equal educational opportunity facilitated the move to a more racially inclusive organization. The NEA's size inhibited a strong policy on controversial matters such as integration but it allowed individual activity in various venues. Individuals committed to social justice, educational opportunity, and employment equity were central to this transformation. Creating widespread grassroots support was challenging for all participants since the embrace of school integration and its manifestations were tied to local issues, customs, and history.; Merging with the NEA was not a panacea for African American educators. As professionals and leaders in education, they were wary about the suitability of relinquishing their allegiance to their own black teachers associations that had their well being as a primary goal. While the NEA had cultivated a relationship with black educators, its efforts to eliminate or change their segregated or limited status was minimal, at best, until the mid twentieth century. Members in the NEA recognizing external forces and their implications began to reassess the NEA's relationship with African American educators. Activists contributed incrementally but substantively to transforming the NEA into a more racially inclusive organization and one that was no longer reticent or hesitant to tackle issues of race and to institutionalize its pledge to equity and democracy. |
