Segregation in education

AFT Affiliate St. Louis Teachers Union Local 420 Records

dgolodner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:08 -0400

The St. Louis (Missouri) Teachers Union was organized in 1935 by Paul W. Preisler, as
the Teachers Union of St. Louis and St. Louis County. Its jurisdiction extended over
these separate political entities in order to include members from Washington University.
In 1944 the name of the local was changed to Teacher’s Federation of St. Louis and St.
Louis County. Its 1948 merger with Local 680, St. Louis Vocational Teachers’ Union,
extended Local 420’s jurisdiction to include “all eligible teachers in St. Louis and St.
Louis County including vocational and college teachers.” By 1962 its name had been
shortened to St. Louis Teachers Union. The St. Louis Teachers Union experienced great growth between 1961 and 1963, during which period its membership grew from 81 to 1,417. Membership grew in the 1970s after the AFT became sole bargaining agent for teachers and with the inclusion of paraprofessionals and support staff, but internal disputes and unsuccessful strikes led to many resignations and a decline in membership in 1968 and 1976.

Part I of this collection contains office files of the AFT local representing the teachers of St. Louis, Missouri. Correspondence, clippings, minutes, press releases, and other materials dealing with such topics as tenure, desegregation, educational standards, membership drives, and collective bargaining by teachers. Several of the files consist of the records of Betty Finneran as a vice-president of the AFT.

Part II of this collection contains material created or used by Betty Finneran and reflect her activities as well as activities of the union as a whole. Finneran served as president, secretary, and treasurer of Local 420 and founded the Retiree Chapter. Local 420 subjects include a dispute with the Missouri Federation of Teachers, raiding between Local 420 and the local National Education Association chapter, internal disputes among board members, organizing and elections, and desegregation of St. Louis schools. Outside of Local 420, Finneran was involved with the St. Louis Coalition of Labor Union Women and other women's rights efforts.

AFT Local 691: Kansas City Federation of Teachers Records

scaloia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:08 -0400

The Kansas City Federation of Teachers, Local 691 of the American Federation of Teachers, represents classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, bus drivers, security officers, and school nurses in Kansas City, Missouri.

Part I consists of correspondence, reports, minutes, clippings, and publications documenting negotiations, strikes and grievances. There is also information on integration, education reform issues and the rivalry between the AFT and the National Education Association.

Part II of the Kansas City Federation of Teachers Records contain a significant amount of material related to a desegregation case involving the Kansas City School District. The KCFT was involved in the case, which began in 1977. District court rulings resulted in segregation efforts in the district with busing programs, magnet schools, increased funding for facilities, programs, and salaries for teachers and other personnel. Eventually the case reached the Supreme Court in State of Missouri, et al. v. Kalima Jenkins, et al. in 1995. Other topics of note in the records are collective bargaining and organizing, a dispute between the KCFT and Blenheim elementary principal Gloria Jenkins, a collaboration between the KCFT and the district on a peer review and intervention program, and the KCFT newsletter, The Local’s View.

Mary Ellen Riordan Papers

scaloia — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 11:32:42 -0500

Mary Ellen Riordan (1920-2010) was president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers from 1960-1981. In 1965, teachers and the school board signed their first contract, only the third teacher contract in the country. Riordan also guided the Detroit Federation of Teachers
through three strikes, the Detroit Public Schools desegregation case Bradley v. Milliken, and agency fee case Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. In addition to her work with DFT, she served on the AFT Executive Council as Vice-President, the AFT Executive Committee, and on the boards of many state and local organizations. The Mary Ellen Riordan Papers contain correspondence, meeting minutes, notes, reports, newsletters, clippings, court documents and legal briefs, contracts, pamphlets, lesson plans, reference material, and ephemera. Topics of note include collective bargaining and strikes; desegregation in the Detroit Public Schools, race relations generally, and especially surrounding the 1967 unrest in Detroit; fair share and agency fees and related court cases; teaching materials from the 1930s through post-World War II in the subjects of math, science, and home economics; and teacher retirement.

[Podcast] Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World

teller — Thu, 22 May 2025 08:35:39 -0400

Dr. Matt Kautz explores how evolving school disciplinary practices, changes in crime reporting, and political pressure in the decades following school desegregation led to the rise of student suspensions, expulsions, dropouts, and the school-to-prison pipeline in Detroit and other cities. read more »