“The Way We Found Them to Be”: Remembering E. Franklin Frazier and the Politics of Respectable Black Teachers

@article{Kelly2010TheWW,
  title={“The Way We Found Them to Be”: Remembering E. Franklin Frazier and the Politics of Respectable Black Teachers},
  author={Hilton Keon Kelly},
  journal={Urban Education},
  year={2010},
  volume={45},
  pages={142 - 165}
}
  • H. Kelly
  • Published 1 March 2010
  • History
  • Urban Education
Given the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of E. Franklin Frazier’s award-winning Black Bourgeoisie , this article reconsiders the political nature of a respectability discourse among black teachers in the Jim Crow South.Writing against Frazier’s image of a materialistic and status-addicted black middle class, I argue that the politics of respectability shaped teachers’ perceptions and actions in positive ways. Drawing upon oral history narratives across three counties in the coastal… 
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