In 2018, more than 8,000 delegates to the RA voted to put racial and social justice at the forefront of NEA’s work. They overwhelmingly adopted a policy commiting NEA to “actively advocate for social and educational strategies fostering the eradication of institutional racism and white privilege.”
In that moment, we were our best selves. We listened, debated, differed — and ultimately, upheld our values of a democratic process and racial justice.
This moment was possible because NEA held those values from our earliest years. We haven’t always made progress as quickly, or neatly. We’ve had to learn and grow. But democracy and racial justice are in our history, and successes from the past give us the strength and stamina to work for a better tomorrow, for all our students.
A Brief History of the NEA
For more than 150 years, NEA members have advocated for equal working conditions for educators and learning opportunities for students.
1857
Birth of the National Teachers Association
Ten state education associations issue a call to “unite … to advance the dignity, respectability and usefulness of their calling.” At first, only men can join, but women are welcomed in 1866.
1865
NTA Denounces Slavery
At the summer convention, NTA President J.P. Wilkersham denounces slavery and recommends that no seceded states be readmitted to the Union until they agree to provide a free public school system for Black as well as white children.
1869
NEA Elects Woman as Vice President
Just three years after membership is opened to women, the NTA elects Emily Rice as Vice President of the Association. In 1910, the NTA elects a woman as president — a decade before Congress grants women the right to vote.
1870
NTA Becomes NEA
The NTA absorbs three smaller organizations, and gets its modern name: the National Education Association.
1920
NEA Becomes a Representative Assembly
The NEA adopts its modern structure of affiliated state and local unions, with delegates to the Representative Assembly.
1926
NEA Forms Joint Committee for Justice
In the 1920s, the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SASC) didn’t accredit schools for African American students, preventing them from attending many colleges and universities. The NEA joined with the American Teachers Association, whose members were primarily Black, to pressure SASC to change. The Joint Committee for Justice was the first of several successful NEA-ATA partnerships.
1940s
NEA Responds to Affiliate Discrimination
The national association focuses on equal treatment of members by affiliate leadership. It refuses to hold Representative Assemblies in cities that discriminate against delegates based on race.
1954
NEA Protects Targets of School Segregation
Despite the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, Black educators were targeted or fired by schools trying to avoid desegregation orders. In response, NEA established a $1 million fund to “protect and promote the professional, civil, and human rights of educators,” and worked with the ATA to support those teachers.
1966
NEA and ATA Merge
In 1964, the Representative Assembly passed a resolution requiring racially segregated affiliates to merge. Two years later, NEA becomes fully integrated, when the NEA and ATA agree to merge at the 1966 Representative Assembly.
1967
NEA Elects First Hispanic President
NEA continues the fight for culturally responsive education. Work at the 1967 conference leads directly to the passage of the 1968 Bilingual Education Act—a great legacy for Braulio Alonso, NEA’s first Hispanic president.
1968
NEA Elects First Black President
Elizabeth Duncan Koontz becomes NEA’s first Black president. Under her tenure, NEA establishes the Center for Human Relations, today known as Human & Civil Rights.
1970s
NEA Recognizes the Need for Inclusion and Diversity
NEA’s commitment to lifting all voices continues with the formation of ethnic-minority caucuses, including the Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee. NEA also adopts new governing documents and Bylaw 3-1(g) to ensure ethnic minority representation in NEA governing bodies and the NEA Representative Assembly is guaranteed.
1974
NEA Wins at the Supreme Court
NEA wins U.S. Supreme Court case striking down mandatory maternity leave for pregnant teachers.
1980s
NEA Welcomes All Educators
Education support professionals gain full membership rights in NEA at the beginning of the decade, followed two years later by the creation of the NEA-Retired program.
2014
NEA Elects All-Female Leadership Team
For the first time in its history, the three top leadership positions at NEA are held by women and by persons of color, as Lily Eskelsen García, Becky Pringle, and Princess Moss are elected, respectively, President, Vice President, and Secretary-Treasurer by delegates at the Representative Assembly.
2015
NEA Commits to Eradicating Institutional Racism
Delegates to NEA Representative Assembly adopt New Business Item B which acknowledges the existence of institutional racism in the United States—the societal patterns and practices that have the net effect of imposing oppressive conditions and denying rights, opportunity, and equality based on race—and sets forth actions and strategies for its elimination.
2018
Educators Continue to Push for Equity
The Representative Assembly adopts NEA Resolution I-52 which acknowledges the existence of White supremacy culture as a primary root cause of institutional racism, structural racism, and White privilege.
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