Reclaiming the African American Vision for Teaching: Toward an Educational Conversation

I remember so vividly the image of Centerville I had seen on the television program detailing the town's plight. I remember the faces of young Black children playing in yards located just a few feet from pools of backedup raw sewage. I remember the outhouses behind homes that did not have inside running water, in a community located only 15 miles from one of the state's largest research universities and less than 15 miles from its acclaimed high-tech industrial triangle community. This was to be the site of my research: Centerville, the town that 17 years ago lost its only remaining school as a result of desegregation. Desegregation has been carefully and comprehensively studied by many researchers (Jaynes & Williams, 1989; Ogbu, 1986), yet little of this research has addressed its consequences for African American teachers. This article presents the results of a qualitative study on the effects of desegregation on African American teachers in the town of Centerville. Using observations, documented reviews, and oral history interviews, it examines the role of African American teachers in transmitting knowledge, values, and beliefs to youth, and in promoting, against the odds, a sense of community in the rural South.