¹ Milwaukee Courier, 12 May 1973.Google Scholar

² For critics of the traditional civil rights movement periodization, see Dalfiume, Richard, “The ‘Forgotten Years’ of the Negro Revolution,” Journal of American History 55 (June 1968): 90–106; Korstad, Robert and Lichtenstein, Nelson, “Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement,” Journal of American History 75 (December 1988): 786-811; Manning Marable, Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1990, 2^nd edition (Jackson, 1990), chapter 2. Google Scholar

³ On the dominant role of Brown in popular history, see opening scenes of the video documentary series, Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings, 1954-1956. (Boston, 1987) and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, where visitors walk by a wall-sized mural of this famous Marshall photograph. Wilson, Amy, “Exhibition Review: National Civil Rights Museum,” Journal of American History 83 (December 1996): 971–6. The classic example in a written work is Kluger, Richard, Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality (New York, 1975). Google Scholar

⁴ Goings, Kenneth W. and Mohl, Raymond A., “Toward a New African American Urban History,” Journal of Urban History 21 (March 1995): 288.Google Scholar

⁵ Chafe, William, Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom (Oxford, 1980); Cecelski, David S., Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina and the Fate of Black Schools in the South (Chapel Hill, 1994); Walker, Vanessa Siddle, Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South (Chapel Hill, 1996). Google Scholar

⁶ Some noteworthy book-length studies of Northern Black school reform in the pre-Brown era include Franklin, Vincent P., The Education of Black Philadelphia: The Social and Educational History of a Minority Community, 1990-1950 (Philadelphia, 1979); Moharz, Judy Jolley, The Separate Problem: Case Studies of Black Education in the North, 1900-1930 (Westport, 1979); Homel, Michael W., Down From Equality: Black Chicagoans and the Public Schools, 1920-1941 (Urbana, 1984); and portions of Tyack, David B., The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education (Cambridge, 1974). While some more general urban educational histories span both the pre- and post-Brown eras, few of them consistently address Black education issues over time. For example, see Ravitch, Diane, The Great School Wars, New York City, 1805-1973: A History of the Public Schools as Battlefield of Social Change (New York, 1974); Cohen, Ronald, Children of the Mill: Schooling and Society in Gary, Indiana, 1906-1960 (Bloomington, 1990); and Mirel, Jeffrey, The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System: Detroit, 1907-1981 (Ann Arbor, 1993). Google Scholar

⁷ See Anderson, Alan B. and Pickering, George W., Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago (Athens, 1986); Mirel, , The Rise and Fall, 186-196, chapters 5 and 6; and Back, Adina, “Up South in New York: The 1950s School Desegregation Struggles,” (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1997). On the role of the national NAACP, see The Crisis (August/September 1961):403; (June/July 1962):342; (August/September 1962):384; (October 1962):481; (February 1963):92ff. Google Scholar

⁸ Trotter, Joe William, Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915-1945 (Urbana, 1985), 47–55; Hamilton, Roy L., “Expectations and Realities of a Migrant Group: Black Migration from the South to Milwaukee, 1946-1958” (, UW-Milwaukee, 1981), 47; Williams, John J., transcript of testimony at Armstrong v O'Connell school desegregation trial, 3 January 1978, pp. 5159-5171, box 147, folder 5, Lloyd Barbee Papers (hereafter LBP), Milwaukee Urban Archives, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Google Scholar

⁹ Milwaukee Journal 1 August 1923; Milwaukee Times 15 July 1926; Williams, Howard J., “The Educational Status of Colored Children in the Garfield Avenue, Ninth Street, and Fourth Street Public Elementary Schools of Milwaukee, Wisconsin” (, Marquette University, 1935).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ellis, Susan, transcript of testimony at Armstrong v O'Connell school desegregation trial, 5 January 1978, p. 5622, box 148, folder 1, LBP.Google Scholar

¹¹ Milwaukee Board of School Directors, Committee on Appointments, verbatim minutes, 26 October 1932, p. 1,6; Vorlop, Frederic Clayton, “Equal Opportunity and the Politics of Education in Milwaukee” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1970), pp. 79–85; Trotter, , Black Milwaukee, 133; Wisconsin Enterprise-Blade 3 May 1932, 2 April 1932. Google Scholar

¹² Milwaukee Board of School Directors, Committee on Appointments, verbatim minutes, 31 May 1939, pp. 4-9; Vorlop, , “Equal Opportunity,” 80–82; Milwaukee Journal 1 June 1939, 26 November 1939.Google Scholar

¹³ Committee on Appointments, 31 May 1939, pp. 9–11.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Committee on Appointments, 31 May 1939, p. 13.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Committee on Appointments, 31 May 1939, pp. 1–2; Milwaukee Journal 26 November 1939; Wilkerson, Doxey, “The Negro in American Education: A Research Memorandum for the Carnegie-Myrdal Study The Negro in America’,” part III, p. 54, table 8. Unpublished manuscript in Schomburg Collection, New York Public Library, 1940.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Milwaukee Journal June 1939.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Grant Gordon, interview with Tracey Watford, 1992, from the “Finding Jobs: A History of African American Workers in Milwaukee” Oral History Project, by the Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Grant Gordon, interview with author, 9 June 1995. All interviews conducted by the author have been or will soon be deposited at the Milwaukee Urban Archives and the Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Young, Ruby, interview with author, 17 July 1996. On married female teachers, see Kritek, William J. and Clear, Delbert K., “Teachers and Principals in the Milwaukee Public Schools,” in Seeds of Crisis: Public Schooling in Milwaukee since 1920, eds. Rury, John L. and Cassell, Frank A. (Madison, 1993), pp. 151–62.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Jackson, John H., interview with Michael Gordon, 26 July 1989, from the Milwaukee Public Schools Oral History Project, Milwaukee Urban Archives. Direct reference to administrators' roles in discouraging secondary school teachers also appears in “Report on Negro Teachers in the Milwaukee Public School System,” [1956], box 17, folder 14, Milwaukee Urban League Papers (hereafter MUL), Milwaukee Urban Archives.Google Scholar

²⁰ Jackson, John H. Dr., transcript of testimony during the Armstrong v O'Connell school desegregation trial, 5 January 1978, pp. 5601–21, box 148, folder 1, LBP.Google Scholar

²¹ “Distribution of White and Non-White Teachers,” box 97, folder 35, LBP. On teachers during the Depression, see Tyack, David and Lowe, Robert and Hansot, Elizabeth, Public Schools in Hard Times: The Great Depression and Recent Years (Cambridge, 1984), chapter 2.Google Scholar

²² Principal Miller to Superintendent Vincent 12 January 1955, in possession of Thomas Cheeks and the author. Thomas Cheeks, interview with author, 22 June 1995.Google Scholar

²³ Milwaukee Journal 12 October 1953.Google Scholar

²⁴ Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel, (both) 12 October 1953; William Kelley to Lester Granger, 4 January 1955, box 1, folder 84, MUL.Google Scholar

²⁵ Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel, 12 October 1953; Williams, Virginia W., “Negro history makers in Milwaukee” [biography of Vel Phillips], Echo, November 1967, 8–10.Google Scholar

²⁶ “Non-White Enrollment Percentages, 1954-55,” box 127, folder 9, LBP.Google Scholar

²⁷ Anderson, and Pickering, , Confronting the Color Line, 64, 76–77; Back, , “Up South in New York”; Mirel, , Rise and Fall of an Urban School System, 193-4. Google Scholar

²⁸ Milwaukee Journal 21 May 1954, 18 May 1954; “Non-white enrollment percentages, 1953-54,” box 127, folder 9, LBP Google Scholar

²⁹ “Milwaukeeans Plan Defense Bias Parades,” Chicago Defender (national edition), 28 June 1945; Williams, Virginia W., “Negro history makers in Milwaukee” [a biography of James Dorsey], Milwaukee Star 7 August 1965. On Kelley's participation in the March on Washington Movement, see Bulletin: Negro March On Washington Committee 1(1), 22 May 1941, in series II, box A416, folder “March on Washington Committee. General 1940-41,” NAACP Papers, Library of Congress. William Kelley to Superintendent Vincent, 8 June 1954, box 1, folder 84, MUL.Google Scholar

³⁰ William Kelley to Warren Banner, 11 July 1956, part I, box 108, folder “Milwaukee Urban League 1957,” National Urban League papers (hereafter NUL), Library of Congress. Italics mine.Google Scholar

³¹ Kelley, to Vincent, , 8 June 1954; Kelley to Lester Granger 3 November 1954, box 1, folder 84, MUL.Google Scholar

³² Kelley, to Granger, , 27 October 1954, box 1, folder 84, MUL; Grover, Michael Ross, “‘All Things to Black Folks’: A History of the Milwaukee Urban League, 1919 to 1980,” (, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1994), 120–1.Google Scholar

³³ Kelley to Banner, 11 July 1956, enclosing survey results of “Sample Questionaire: Pertinent Information With Reference to Negro Teachers in Public School System,” part I, box 108, NUL. Milwaukee figures were not listed in the chart, but were calculated from previous MUL sources.Google Scholar

³⁴ Survey results of “Sample Questionaire”.Google Scholar

³⁵ Granger, to Vincent, , 19 January 1955, box 1, folder 84, MUL.Google Scholar

³⁶ Granger, to Vincent, , 19 January 1955; Kelley to Granger, 27 August 1954, box 1, folder 84, MUL; Granger, Lester, “Does the Negro Want Integration?” The Crisis (February 1951): 73–79; Moore, Jesse Thomas, A Search for Equality: The National Urban League, 1910-1961 (University Park, 1981), 54, 164-182. Google Scholar

³⁷ Kelley to Granger, 13 June 1957, part I, box 108, NUL papers; Kelley to Granger, 22 March 1955, box 1, folder 84, MUL; “Report on Negro Teachers in Milwaukee Public School System,” [1956] MUL; MUL Monthly Reports, January 1956, September 1956, January 1957.Google Scholar

³⁸ Since racial data was not officially collected by the Milwaukee Public Schools until 1964, estimates on earlier years were gathered from multiple sources. The 1945-46 is based on the names of Black teachers, gathered from the MUL “Report on Negro Teachers,” who appeared in the Milwaukee Public Schools Manual and Roster for that year, as well as the author's interviews with Black teachers. For subsequent years, see detailed correspondence in MUL papers, box 1, folder 84; “Distribution of White and Non-White Teachers,” box 97, folder 35 and Milwaukee Public Schools “Report on Visual Count of Teachers,” 1965, box 103, folder 16, LBP; Armstrong v O'Connell 451 F. Supp. 817 (1978) at 830.Google Scholar

³⁹ Milwaukee Journal 30 May 1960; League, Milwaukee Urban, “Negro Teachers in the Milwaukee School System,” 1965, p. 6, box 8, folder 21, MUL.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Armstrong v O'Connell 451 F. Supp. 817 (1978) at 830.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Milwaukee Journal, 29 May 1960, which mistakenly exaggerated the degree of racial progress and reported the hiring rate as double the Black population (presumed to be only 5 percent before census data became available).Google Scholar

⁴² Barbee, Lloyd, “Milwaukee School Desegregation: A History,” Milwaukee Community Journal 20 Dec. 1978. Reconstructed dialogue from the perspective of Llovd Barbee, interview with author, July 12, 1995.Google Scholar

⁴³ For example, see Proctor, Ralph Jr., “Racial Discrimination Against Black Teachers and black Professionals in the Pittsburgh Public School System, 1834-1973,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1979).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Harding, Vincent, Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement (Maryknoll, NY, 1990), chapters 1 and 3.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Cubberley, Ellwood P., Public Education in the United States (Cambridge, 1919, revised 1962), 164–7. The leading critics of his work include Bailyn, Bernard, Education in the Forming of American Society: Needs and Opportunities for Study (New York, 1960), and Cremin, Lawrence A., The Wonderful World of Ellwood Patterson Cubberley: An Essay on the Historiography of American Education (New York, 1965). Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Orfield, Gary and Eaton, Susan E., Dismantling Segregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown v. Board of Education (New York, 1996).Google Scholar