"Kappan"'s editor talks with the distinguished historian Vanessa Siddle Walker about the hidden -- and lost -- tradition of political advocacy by Black educational leaders in the segregated South. To promote equity and excellence for all students, she argues, today's educators will need to recover the sorts of extensive and…

This article provides a thematic overview of the ways in which black educators, through their professional associations, advocated to create equality of schooling for black children in the pre-"Brown" era. In the struggle for socially just education, Black educators are historically depicted as reluctant participants or employees worried…