How did desegregation affect the jobs of black school teachers in the South?

Question

With an end to school segregation decreed for the South, Negro teachers there are coming up against a real question. It is this: Can they look to the Northern states for teaching jobs if these are wiped out by an integration of Negro and white schools in the South?

Answer 1

Before a nation-wide mandate for school desegregation through the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Act, African American men and women served as community leaders through their roles as teachers within African American schools in the South. After desegregation, white schools in the South begrudgingly opened their doors to African American students, yet oftentimes denied employment to African American teachers. Because of this, African American students often felt isolated as they attended schools with all-white faculty and continued hostility.