Red, Black, & "Brown": African American Educators in Indian Country

Khalil Johnson

Red, Black, & Brown reveals an unintended consequence of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. It documents how the displacement of African American educators from southern schools after Brown sent hundreds of black teachers into Bureau of Indian Affairs run schools on reservations across the United States. This migration narrative ruptures a partition dividing 20th century black and Indian history while connecting the educational history of both groups in order to shed new light on the long civil rights struggle. Excluded from the protections of true citizenship in the South, black teachers found relative security through federal employment only to become functionaries in the government's efforts to assimilate Indians through education. While differing statuses of inequality made African Americans and Native Americans competitors in the struggle for equal rights and self-determination, a shared sense of oppression often fostered affinities and alliances across racial lines.

About Khalil Johnson

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