The Sociopolitical Context of Education in Post-Civil Rights Birmingham

Abstract

Drawing on scholarship from the politics and history of education, narrative and archival data, and the author's emic perspectives, this article examines social and political transformations in the Birmingham City Schools (BCS) and some of the surrounding metropolitan school districts during the pre- and post-classical phases of the American civil rights movement. The BCS, in particular, has encountered a fate similar to urban districts across the U.S. South and nation, most notably, severe fiscal, social, and economic problems precipitated by historic racial inequities, the exodus of middle-class White and African American students and families to the surrounding suburbs, and increased enrollment of students who are socially and economically disenfranchised. Moreover, the district has been beset by inter- and intraracial school governance controversies and shrinking legal, political, and financial commitments from federal, state, and local governments. The question deliberated is whether or not post-civil rights Birmingham can reignite its renowned civic capacity, which is grounded in its historic role as a bastion of the civil rights movement, to address these pressing concerns. This question is considered in light of decidedly altered municipal and educational contexts that are more metropolitan, ethnically and linguistically diverse, and socioeconomically stratified.

Notes

The discussion of the BBOE's history is based on data collected from the Birmingham (AL) Public Library's government documents department (Birmingham Board of Education, 1954–1990) and the author's extensive narrative study of Birmingham educators born during the pre-civil rights, civil rights, and post-civil rights movement eras. The “civil rights movement” in the context of this article is understood to be the classical mid-20th century phase of what some historians refer to as a long civil rights movement that spanned as far back as the 19th century and endured through the 1970s and 1980s. The methodology for this study is described in detail in some of the author's previous and forthcoming publications (Loder-Jackson, 2011, 2012, in press).

The racial/ethnic descriptors “Black” and “African American” are referenced interchangeably during historical periods when they were more commonly used in the American public discourse.