Even the books were separate: Court-mandated desegregation and educators' professional lives during the Caddo Crossover of 1969--1970 (Louisiana)

Since 1954, Brown v. Board of Education, the unshakable tenet that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal has resulted in the relentless pursuit of educational equality in this country. Federal courts were charged with expending their considerable equitable powers to eradicate all traces of state-imposed segregation. The purpose of this study was to examine narratively in order to understand the impact that court-mandated desegregation had on the professional lives of educators during the initial year of court ordered desegregation in one urban school district during the time period of 1969 to 1970. Narrative analysis techniques were employed to uncover themes from the narrative stories of six purposively selected educators. Four main themes were uncovered: historicity, reflection, commitment and closure. Conclusions reached are discussed through the participants' individual adaptive sense-seeking purposes: context, balance and hope. All participants indicated strong feelings attached to the desegregation process. Importantly, the feelings were positively directed as commitments to their students' learning and to their own professional learning as the desegregation process began.