Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for July 4, 2006 MERGER...BACK IN THE DAY

From the Tallahassee Democrat...

Local man had role in education union's desegregation

By Marci Elliot
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

James Geiger remembers what life was like before the days of desegregation.

He recalls the division lines between the nation's two major education organizations: the National Education Association, which was predominantly white, and the American Teachers' Association, which mostly represented black teachers.

He was part of the merger that joined the two groups, dissolving the ATA and making it one with the NEA.

Now Geiger, 64, reminisces about the cooperation between them that seemed to make an immediate improvement back then.

"It seems almost like yesterday. The merger didn't impress us as such a big thing at the time - but looking back at it now, we can see it was a momentous occasion," Geiger said Monday. "It was truly a watershed that changed the face of education."

Geiger spoke by phone to the Tallahassee Democrat from Orlando, where some 14,000 teachers and other educators - 9,000 of them delegates - have gathered for the organization's 144th national meeting and 85th representative assembly. The event ends Wednesday.

High on the agenda was the merger's 40th anniversary, which was Monday. It was celebrated with a ceremony to honor individuals who were instrumental in uniting the two groups, and Geiger, of Tallahassee, was one of the honorees. He was a faculty representative during the merger years and the new NEA's first UniServ director in Florida.

NEA spokesman Cory Wofford said the 1966 merger is still working after 40 years.

"The ATA doesn't exist any more under that name," Wofford said. "The NEA picked up its programs and kept them going. The NEA as it is today is going quite well."

Forty years ago, Wofford said, public education was not a level playing field for all students. Segregation was the main reason, even after Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Working conditions for black educators were harsh, Wofford said, and many of them were fired for affiliating with civil-rights organizations.

The merger of the two education associations was a major catalyst in improving the quality of education for all students, particularly blacks.

The NEA's agenda includes a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Brown.

Geiger, the president of PESCO, a local company that provides benefits for the Florida Education Association, sees more clearly now how the merger effected change and improvements in American education.

"It set a trend for society during a very tumultuous time," Geiger said, adding that there are still obvious issues that exist and that a lot more needs to be done to correct them.

"One of the things is there needs to be recognition of public-school systems," he said. "They're educating more people than in the past, and some of them are pretty remarkable. Look at all the inventions and progress that have been made, especially in the field of technology. The people responsible for them always name some teacher who helped them become successful."