Displacement of Black Teachers in Missouri Post-Brown Summary and Coverage

Published On: Nov. 6, 2025

Summary:

After the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. the Board of Education in 1954, states across the country began desegregating their school districts. Many districts, especially in rural areas and small towns, consolidated their historically white and black schools so that all students, regardless of race, were taught in the same institutions. However, this process did not produce equitable outcomes. Instead of integrating faculty, school districts often excluded Black teachers, terminating or demoting them to less prominent roles. This unequal approach, sometimes referred to as one-way desegregation, displaced large numbers of Black teachers in southern and border states.

In many rural towns, Black teachers found themselves shut out of the integration process. White school boards and white parents fought against the integration of black teachers in their schools, claiming they did not want their children to be taught by Black teachers. In response, school boards dismissed Black teachers rather than hiring them into integrated schools. Those who were offered jobs were given lesser roles than the ones they had previously, often not being allowed to teach core subjects, relegating them to vocational studies or assistant positions. Data from the Southern Education Reporting Service (SERS) from 1954-1970 reveals this trend, indicating a decrease in black teacher populations across seventeen border and southern states.

In Missouri, the decline in the Black teacher workforce coincided with growth in the Black student population, creating a widening gap caused by inequitable integration practices.

The gap in black teachers compared to black students only continued to grow, and by the 2020-21 academic year, Missouri’s black student population has grown to 15.2% while its black teacher workforce has shrunk to 4.6%.

Missouri’s current student-teacher racial imbalance stems directly from the unequal integration practices implemented by many southern and border states in the mid-twentieth century. Policymakers must recognize this history as they work to address today’s disparities in representation within Missouri’s public schools.

News Coverage:

STLPR:

From the article: In “The Displacement of Black Teachers in Missouri Post-Brown, 1954-1970,” the researchers write that over 2,230 Black educators were removed from classrooms across the state during integration as Missouri moved to be in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling. The July report also outlined the displacement of Black teachers in 16 other Southern and border states during the desegregation of schools.

Co-Author Alyssa Ignaczak said it is upsetting that school districts and education organizations are still having the same conversations about recruitment as they did in the 1970s. She hopes policymakers see this report as a way to tackle the entire problem and not just recruitment.

“You can only recruit people to teach if they have the opportunities and the educational access to be eligible in the first place,” she said. “We can't just say, 'Let's target recruitment,’ if we're not also saying, ‘How do we ensure that Black students have access to quality educational resources?’”

Also - Check out the Gateway Podcast’s discussion of our latest report on the displacement of Black teachers in Missouri Schools by Dr. Joseph. R. Nichols and Alyssa Ignaczak, M.Ed.

Listen Here on Spotify

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