Following his time at MVC, Bell was announced as the new Dean of Men at the historically black Knoxville College on July 7, 1961.[3][4] In that capacity, Bell denied a police claim that Knoxville College students had made up a significant proportion of participants in an anti-segregation rally in April 1963.[10] In September 1963, it was reported that Bell was one of two Knoxville College faculty members for whom the United Negro College Fund Faculty Fellowship Program had granted funds to pursue doctoral degrees, with the report stating that "Mr. Bell will study for a doctorate in physical education at the University of Georgia".[11][12] Bell thereafter received a Ph.D. from Indiana University,[2] receiving approval for his dissertation on the effects of certain recreational and academic factors on "Negro students enrolled in the secondary public schools of Eastern Tennessee".[13]
By December 1968, Bell had received his doctorate and was a program officer in the Texas Education Agency, and participated in a review of Lubbock County, Texas schools overseen by the United States Office of Education.[14] The following year, Bell testified about Lubbock's plans in a hearing on the matter in Dallas, questioning whether they would ever lead to integration of the district, and proposing two alternative plans to achieve this goal.[15][16] By October 1970, Bell was chief of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Office of Education in Dallas,[17] and by 1971, his title was reported as chief of the education branch of the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,[18] from which position he continued to review Texas school district desegregation plans throughout the 1970s.[19][20][21][22]
In one incident in 1975, Bell learned that the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board was allowing the Ku Klux Klan to hold meetings in one of the schools during nonschool hours, and sent a telegram to the Board deeming this a violation of various federal regulations, threatening to cut off federal funding to the district; the Klan sued, and in 1978 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of the Klan.[23] By June 1980, Bell was Director of the Education and Secondary Education Division of the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, a position from which he was responsible for the office examining complaints of discrimination in education in an area including New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.[24][25][26]
By June 1989, Bell had left the government and established a private firm, Bell and Associates, School Desegregation and Educational Civil Rights Consultants.[27][28] In 1992, Bell was the commencement speaker at his first alma mater, Philander Smith College.[2] In 1996, the Galveston Independent School District invited Bell, as "a desegregation expert", to review its desegregation plans,[29] and in 1999 and 2000, Bell was a consultant for the United States Department of Justice in an investigation of desegregation progress in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, with Bell producing a report criticizing the school system for allowing "racially identifiable" schools to persist.[30]
^"HEW Asks School Closings", Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (December 19, 1968), p. 1-A, 14-A.
^"Lubbock's Integration Plan Doubted By U.S.", Austin American-Statesman (October 30, 1969), p. A2.
^"Integration At Lubbock Challenged", The Amarillo Globe-Times (October 30, 1969), p. 44.
^"Gilmer School Board Plans Tax Guidelines", The Gilmer Mirror (October 22, 1970), p. 1, 14.
^"Brady Schools Are Ordered To Stop Transfer Students", San Angelo Standard-Times (June 30, 1971), p. 7.
^"Answer report", Betty Cardwell, Corpus Christi Caller-Times (February 16, 1973), p. 18C: "Signed by school board president Tom Mason, the response will be sent to Dr. John A. Bell of the OCR in Dallas".
^"Ethnic plan postponed", Corpus Christi Caller-Times (April 5, 1974), p. 12D: "In the HEW reply, John A. Bell, chief of the Education Branch, Office of Civil Rights in Dallas, noted that his office had accepted a desegregation plan from the local school district".
^"Ronald Ozio, "Schools get 60-day deadline to ready new bilingual plan", Corpus Christi Caller-Times (September 15, 1977), p. B-1: "In an eight-page letter, John A. Bell of the Dallas HEW office accused the district of failing to properly identify all students needing bilingual instruction... [and] set a 60-day deadline by which the district is to formulate a new bilingual plan".
^"Discrimination alleged against school board", The Kinder Courier News (October 11, 1979), p. 1: "Kennard gave each copies of a letter he had received on October 1 from Dr. John A. Bell, HEW/Office of Civil Rights, Dallas, Texas".
^Knights of Ku Klux Klan, Realm of Louisiana v. East Baton Rouge Parish School Bd., 578 F.2d 1122, 1123 (5th Cir. 1978).
^Clinton Bragg, "Animas Schools deny civil rights complaint", The Deming Headlight (June 30, 1980), p. 9.
^"Oakdale High To Have Discrimination Probe", The Oakdale Journal (June 10, 1981), p. 1.
^"Sallisaw Corrects Civil Rights Violations", Sequoyah County Times (January 14, 1982), p. 1.
^Keely Coghlan, "Consultant evaluates Ector desegregation", San Angelo Standard-Times
(June 23, 1989), p. 1C.
^Penny Brown Roberts, "Study cites low scores in schools", The Shreveport Times (November 19, 1992), p. 1.
^Steve Mayo, "GISD takes steps towards fulfilling desegregation court order", The Galveston Daily News (November 22, 1996), p. A6-A7.
^Todd Billiot, "Desegregation report criticizes area schools", The Lafayette Daily Advertiser (May 18, 2000), p. 1.
"RACE AND SCHOOL SUSPENSIONS IN DALLAS", October 1972 letter from John A. Bell notifying Dallas school superintendent Nolan Estes of possible violations of the civil rights of black students