Chapter 13: Fishbowl Reflections: A High School Teacher’s Enlightenment During a Faculty Desegregation Experience

A televised lottery in January 1970 was Orange County, Florida Public Schools’ response to a federal court order for immediate public school desegregation. Massive busing would have required the use of nearly half of the county school budget for the academic year, so a plan for desegregating school faculties in January and desegregating students at the start of the new school year in August was submitted to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The plan was accepted and, with little time to effect the faculty transfers, a lottery drawing was proposed by the Classroom Teachers’ Association.

After the names of hundreds of Black and White teachers were paired for transfer purposes during the live broadcast of the lottery, the names of two high school French teachers were called. The White teacher called the television station to resign rather than be transferred to the all Black high school. A replacement teacher had to be found immediately, since the transferred teachers had been given one school day to move their books, supplies, and equipment to the new school. Students were given no warning. The whole process soon became known as the Fishbowl Transfers.