An investigation of African -American educators' experiences of marginality as they cross the cultural boundary of their own racial community into a predominantly White public school system

The purpose of the study focused on inclusionary practices of the majority society and how these practices affected minorities and their social and occupational mobility. The study critically engaged assimilation theory based on the experiences of White European immigrants in an effort to explain the assimilation experiences of two African American educators as they crossed their own racial boundaries into the dominant White culture of the American public school system. Particular attention was directed to the circumstances of social mobility and occupational success of two African American educators.;The investigation focused on the idea of identity, for two African American educators as they achieved social and/or occupational success within the dominant culture. Historical data was included in the investigation in an effort to examine the pattern of treatment that minority groups have received overtime by the dominant group. The investigation examined the implications of friendship patterns, organizational affiliations, civic participation, self-identification, value conflict and value integration, political life, prejudice and discrimination, and American unity as aspects of the assimilation theory.;Conclusions indicated that the two African American educators only achieved partial assimilation into Akron's dominant White community. The concept of race as it related to skin color and assimilation into the dominant White society proved to be an obstacle for one of the two African American educators. The racial ambiguity of one subject eased the pain of partial assimilation. The United States continues to be historically stratified by a caste system where a single characteristic such as color governs how a person will spend their life.