1857

1865

1866

1870

43 educators from 8 states and the District of Columbia attend the first meeting of the National Teachers Association (NTA), later named the National Education Association.

NTA’s national convention focuses on ways to cope with education issues in the aftermath of the Civil War.

NTA extends full membership rights to women.

NTA changes its name to National Education Association (NEA), and merges with three smaller organizations (The National Association of School Superintendents, The American Normal School Association, and the Central College Association).

1884

1903

1904

1905

Booker T. Washington, founder and president of Tuskegee Institute, addresses the NEA convention.

At NEA’s national convention, Margaret Haley leads a demonstration about the economic conditions for teachers, including tenure and pensions.

Black educator J.R.E. Lee, dean of the Academic Department of Tuskegee Institute, issued a call for the founding of the National Association of Colored Teachers to fight for funding and against segregation. The Association was renamed the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools in 1907 and the American Teachers Association in 1937.

NEA releases its first national statistical report on economic conditions for teachers.

1906

1910

1912

1913

Theodore Roosevelt signs an Act of Congress establishing the charter of the National Education Association of the United States.

NEA elects its first female president, Ella Flagg Young, a decade before Congress grants voting rights to women.

NEA formally endorses Women’s Suffrage.

The Association creates The NEA Bulletin, its first professional journal and a forerunner to other NEA publications.

1914

1917

1919

1920

NEA passes a resolution supporting equal pay for equal work.

NEA moves its headquarters to Washington, D.C.

NEA members in New Jersey lead the way to the nation’s first state pension. By 1945, every state has a pension plan in effect.

Every state has an NEA-affiliated Association, leading to creation of the Representative Assembly (RA) -- the largest democratic decision-making body in the world.

1921

1928

1928

NEA joins the U.S. Office of Education and the American Legion to create American Education Week, a public awareness campaign that continues today.

Mary MacSkimmon becomes NEA president and opens dialogue with the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (NATCS). An exploratory committee with members of both organizations is formed to study the lack of accreditation of Black high schools, effectively blocking students from acceptance in many colleges and universities. The committee is active until the two groups merge in 1966.

The NEA and NATCS exploratory committee becomes a permanent Joint Committee.

Cornelia S. Adair, a grade school teacher from Virginia, is the first classroom teacher elected president of NEA.

1937

1943

1954

1957

The National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools changed its name to the American Teachers Association (ATA) but continued to focus on the educational challenges of Black students and educators.

NEA helps reverse "The Little Red Rider" -- a Congressional Act requiring all D.C. public school employees to swear an oath disavowing communism or forfeit their salary.

The Student National Education Association (SNEA) is founded as a department of NEA.

NEA supports Oklahoma teacher Kate Frank, fired for Association activities. Kate is reinstated in 1945, and funds from her legal defense are used to create the Kate Frank/DuShane Fund, which enables legal representation for NEA members whose rights have been violated.

The RA passes a New Business Item requiring that NEA conventions be held in cities where provisions for delegates can be made without discrimination in housing, feeding, and convention seating.

The RA in Miami Beach is the first fully-integrated convention held in the South by a major national organization.

NEA helps create the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), advocating for uniform national standards for the training of America’s public schools.

5000 delegates gather in Philadelphia to celebrate NEA’s centennial. President Dwight Eisenhower is on hand to cut the cake.

1958

1960

1964

1965

NEA helps gain passage of the National Defense Education Act, a federal effort to improve education in science, mathematics, and foreign language study.

NEA begins organizing higher education faculty.

NEA lobbies to pass the Civil Rights Act, protecting individuals against on-the-job harassment and discrimination and allowing victims of employment discrimination to collect compensatory damages. The Act passes.

NEA sponsors the first national conference to explore increasing educational opportunities for Hispanic and Latino children.

President Lyndon Johnson addresses the RA, and later establishes an Interagency Task Force to investigage the dismissals of Black educators in desegregating school systems.