The Last Black Teacher

Book excerpt: Since Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, continued resistance to desegregation has resulted in additional racialized policies, ideologies, and practices related to deficit thinking. Efforts to resist desegregation coincided with efforts to destroy Black Career Educators through systemic racism, marginalization, and indicators that they were unsuitable, unlicensed, inexperienced, and barely qualified to instruct Black children. In the year 2020, the largest generation of Black Career Educators will retire and exit public schools thus removing the only advocates for the majority population, Black and Hispanic students. The complex and dominant resistance to Brown, the failure of desegregation and equality in public education for students of color, and the need to retain white supremacy is evident today as students of color disproportionately experience higher rates of expulsion, suspension, and disciplinary actions resulting from racialized policies that dismantle career opportunities related to the future of work and support the school-to-prison pipelines. After thirty-six years as a Black Career Educator, in both secondary and collegiate education environments, I share in living color the results from racialized education policies directed toward Black Career Educators and students of color. In addition, I address the social-psychological impact on both teachers and students of color - especially issues related to teacher victimization, mental health, and racial microaggressions.