The Negro Morton’s Fork: How the 1954 Brown Decision Forced African-American Educators to Choose between Decimation and Assimilation
Michael L. McIntosh
Abstract
This article will discuss the Negro Morton’s Fork: the dilemma Black educators after the 1954 Brown Decision that forced them to choose between two equally unpleasant alternatives: decimation and assimilation. Faced with professional eradication; Black educators seemingly had no alternative than to become participants in a system that was designed to marginalize minority and poor students. The article begins with a post Brown era historical documentation of the injustices suffered by Black educators during the disintegration of the black education system post Brown and then offers sobering evidence that the consequences of the forced choice reverberates today in our nation’s schools.