ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the voices of African American educators as a means of responding to the silence of individuals affected both personally and professionally by the historic Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. It discusses how these educators' perspectives on the desegregation plan in that city, which was enacted as a result of a settlement in 1983, reflect elements of what is conceptually being defined today as critical race theory. The chapter relates the interest-convergence principle to the implementation of the St. Louis desegregation plan. It discusses the exclusion of black educators from the Brown v. Board of Education debates and the educational policies that followed this court case. The conceptualization and implementation of educational policies, particularly those with serious implications for African American education, are incomplete when they ignore the perspectives of black educators. These educators provide a more inclusive but often neglected voice on educational policy for African American children.
