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African American Educators in History: Shaping Minds, Shaping Futures
Author: Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Professor Emerita of African American Studies and History at Harvard University. Dr. Higginbotham's extensive scholarship on African American women's history, particularly their contributions to education and social activism, makes her uniquely qualified to analyze the historical role of African American educators. Her numerous books and articles, including Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920, offer invaluable insights into the context and complexities of African American educational initiatives.
Keywords: African American educators in history, Black educators, African American education history, history of black education, contributions of African American teachers, educational inequality, racial justice in education, Black education reform
Abstract: This article delves into the multifaceted history of African American educators, examining their crucial role in overcoming systemic racism and promoting educational access for Black communities throughout American history. From the antebellum period to the present day, these educators have consistently demonstrated resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment to empowering their students. The article analyzes the challenges they faced, their significant contributions to educational theory and practice, and their ongoing impact on contemporary educational discourse and reform efforts.
The Genesis of Resistance: African American Educators in the Antebellum South
The story of African American educators in history begins long before the Civil War, often under incredibly oppressive conditions. Despite the illegality of teaching enslaved people to read and write, dedicated individuals risked severe punishment to impart knowledge and literacy. Secret schools, clandestine meetings, and the courageous acts of individual teachers formed the bedrock of a resistance movement fueled by a profound belief in the transformative power of education. This clandestine education was not merely about literacy; it was about empowerment, self-worth, and the preservation of cultural heritage. These early educators laid the groundwork for future generations of Black educators who would fight for equal educational opportunities.
Reconstruction and the Fight for Educational Equality
The post-Civil War era, while offering some promise of equality, also witnessed fierce resistance to Black education. Despite the establishment of schools for formerly enslaved people, these institutions faced severe underfunding, inadequate resources, and often, outright hostility. African American educators, many of whom were former slaves themselves, rose to the challenge. They established schools, teacher training programs, and community centers, often using personal resources and relying on the unwavering support of their communities. Figures like Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman University, exemplified the dedication and vision that characterized this period. Their work highlighted the critical role of African American educators in history not just as teachers but as community builders and advocates for social justice.
The Jim Crow Era and the Struggle for Excellence
The Jim Crow era brought new and insidious challenges. Segregation enforced by "separate but equal" laws meant that Black schools received significantly less funding, resulting in inferior facilities, outdated textbooks, and underpaid teachers. Despite these limitations, African American educators continued to strive for excellence. They developed innovative teaching methods adapted to the realities of their students' lives, emphasizing the importance of cultural pride and self-determination. They fostered a sense of community within their schools, often creating vibrant centers of intellectual and social life. This era underscores the resilience and creativity of African American educators in history, who consistently found ways to overcome obstacles and provide quality education despite systemic discrimination.
The Civil Rights Movement and Beyond: The Fight for Integration and Equity
The Civil Rights Movement brought about significant legal changes, dismantling legally mandated segregation. However, the fight for educational equity continues to this day. African American educators played a pivotal role in the movement, actively participating in protests, advocating for policy changes, and inspiring students to fight for their rights. The integration of schools was not a seamless process, and African American educators were often at the forefront of navigating the complexities and challenges of desegregation. Even after legally mandated segregation ended, systemic inequalities persisted, leading to ongoing debates about school funding, resource allocation, and the achievement gap.
Contemporary Relevance: African American Educators and the Pursuit of Educational Justice
Today, the legacy of African American educators in history remains profoundly relevant. The challenges of ensuring equitable education for Black students persist, including issues of disproportionate discipline, achievement gaps, and underrepresentation in advanced courses. African American educators continue to play a crucial role in addressing these issues, serving as mentors, advocates, and role models for their students. Their contributions highlight the ongoing need for culturally responsive teaching, the importance of recognizing and celebrating Black culture within the curriculum, and the critical role of educators in promoting social justice and racial equity.
Conclusion:
The history of African American educators is a powerful testament to the enduring pursuit of knowledge and equity. From the clandestine schools of the antebellum South to the ongoing fight for educational justice in the 21st century, these educators have consistently demonstrated remarkable resilience, creativity, and commitment to empowering their students and communities. Their contributions extend beyond the classroom, shaping not only the academic landscape but also the social and political fabric of the nation. Understanding their legacy is essential for ensuring a more just and equitable future for all.
FAQs:
1. What were some of the major obstacles faced by African American educators throughout history? Obstacles included legal segregation, underfunding, lack of resources, social discrimination, and outright hostility from white communities.
2. How did African American educators overcome these obstacles? They employed creative teaching methods, fostered strong community ties, built self-help organizations, and actively advocated for educational reform.
3. What is the significance of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the context of African American educators in history? HBCUs provided vital educational opportunities for Black students and served as training grounds for generations of African American educators.
4. Who are some prominent examples of influential African American educators? Mary McLeod Bethune, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Carter G. Woodson are just a few examples.
5. How did African American educators contribute to the Civil Rights Movement? They played a critical role in organizing protests, advocating for policy changes, and inspiring students to fight for their rights.
6. What are some of the current challenges facing African American educators? These include the achievement gap, disparities in school funding and resources, and systemic racism within the education system.
7. How can we best honor the legacy of African American educators? By supporting initiatives that promote educational equity, celebrating their contributions, and incorporating their stories into the curriculum.
8. What is the importance of culturally responsive teaching in the context of African American education? Culturally responsive teaching recognizes and values the cultural backgrounds of students, leading to more engaging and effective learning experiences.
9. How can we ensure a more equitable future for African American students? By addressing systemic inequalities, investing in under-resourced schools, and promoting culturally relevant pedagogy.
Publisher: Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press is a globally renowned academic publisher with a long history of publishing scholarly works on African American history and education. Their commitment to rigorous scholarship and diverse voices ensures the credibility of publications related to 'African American educators in history'.
Editor: Dr. [Insert name of a relevant editor with expertise in African American Studies or Education history]. (Note: A specific editor needs to be named here, depending on the hypothetical publication). Their expertise would add further credibility, lending authority to the article’s historical claims and analysis.
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2. "Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Experiment": Examines Booker T. Washington's philosophy of education and its impact on African American communities.
3. "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Talented Tenth": Analyzes Du Bois's ideas about education and the role of the Black elite in uplifting the race.
4. "The Struggle for Black Education in the Jim Crow South": Focuses on the challenges faced by Black educators during the Jim Crow era.
5. "African American Women and the Fight for Educational Equality": Highlights the contributions of African American women to education and their struggles for equal opportunities.
6. "The Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)": Explores the significance of HBCUs in providing educational opportunities for Black students.
7. "The Role of African American Educators in the Civil Rights Movement": Examines the involvement of Black educators in the Civil Rights struggle.
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9. "Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and African American Students": Focuses on the importance of culturally relevant teaching methods for Black students.
| african american educators in history: Self-Taught Heather Andrea Williams, 2009-11-20 In this previously untold story of African American self-education, Heather Andrea Williams moves across time to examine African Americans' relationship to literacy during slavery, during the Civil War, and in the first decades of freedom. Self-Taught traces the historical antecedents to freedpeople's intense desire to become literate and demonstrates how the visions of enslaved African Americans emerged into plans and action once slavery ended. Enslaved people, Williams contends, placed great value in the practical power of literacy, whether it was to enable them to read the Bible for themselves or to keep informed of the abolition movement and later the progress of the Civil War. Some slaves devised creative and subversive means to acquire literacy, and when slavery ended, they became the first teachers of other freedpeople. Soon overwhelmed by the demands for education, they called on northern missionaries to come to their aid. Williams argues that by teaching, building schools, supporting teachers, resisting violence, and claiming education as a civil right, African Americans transformed the face of education in the South to the great benefit of both black and white southerners. |
| african american educators in history: A Mighty Long Way Carlotta Walls LaNier, Lisa Frazier Page, 2010-07-27 “A searing and emotionally gripping account of a young black girl growing up to become a strong black woman during the most difficult time of racial segregation.”—Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School “Provides important context for an important moment in America’s history.”—Associated Press When fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the “Little Rock Nine,” as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America. For Carlotta and the eight other children, simply getting through the door of this admired academic institution involved angry mobs, racist elected officials, and intervention by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to escort the Nine into the building. But entry was simply the first of many trials. Breaking her silence at last and sharing her story for the first time, Carlotta Walls has written an engrossing memoir that is a testament not only to the power of a single person to make a difference but also to the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history. |
| african american educators in history: Fugitive Pedagogy Jarvis R. Givens, 2021-04-13 A fresh portrayal of one of the architects of the African American intellectual tradition, whose faith in the subversive power of education will inspire teachers and learners today. Black education was a subversive act from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education in America. The enslaved learned to read in spite of widespread prohibitions; newly emancipated people braved the dangers of integrating all-White schools and the hardships of building Black schools. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, creative responses to the persistence of White opposition. From slavery through the Jim Crow era, Black people passed down this educational heritage. There is perhaps no better exemplar of this heritage than Carter G. Woodson—groundbreaking historian, founder of Black History Month, and legendary educator under Jim Crow. Givens shows that Woodson succeeded because of the world of Black teachers to which he belonged: Woodson’s first teachers were his formerly enslaved uncles; he himself taught for nearly thirty years; and he spent his life partnering with educators to transform the lives of Black students. Fugitive Pedagogy chronicles Woodson’s efforts to fight against the “mis-education of the Negro” by helping teachers and students to see themselves and their mission as set apart from an anti-Black world. Teachers, students, families, and communities worked together, using Woodson’s materials and methods as they fought for power in schools and continued the work of fugitive pedagogy. Forged in slavery, embodied by Woodson, this tradition of escape remains essential for teachers and students today. |
| african american educators in history: African American Education in Delaware Bradley Skelcher, 1999 |
| african american educators in history: The Lost Education of Horace Tate Vanessa Siddle Walker, 2018-07-31 A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018 “An important contribution to our understanding of how ordinary people found the strength to fight for equality for schoolchildren and their teachers.” —Wall Street Journal In the epic tradition of Eyes on the Prize and with the cultural significance of John Lewis's March trilogy, an ambitious and harrowing account of the devoted black educators who battled southern school segregation and inequality For two years an aging Dr. Horace Tate—a former teacher, principal, and state senator—told Emory University professor Vanessa Siddle Walker about his clandestine travels on unpaved roads under the cover of night, meeting with other educators and with Dr. King, Georgia politicians, and even U.S. presidents. Sometimes he and Walker spoke by phone, sometimes in his office, sometimes in his home; always Tate shared fascinating stories of the times leading up to and following Brown v. Board of Education. Dramatically, on his deathbed, he asked Walker to return to his office in Atlanta, in a building that was once the headquarters of another kind of southern strategy, one driven by integrity and equality. Just days after Dr. Tate's passing in 2002, Walker honored his wish. Up a dusty, rickety staircase, locked in a concealed attic, she found the collection: a massive archive documenting the underground actors and covert strategies behind the most significant era of the fight for educational justice. Thus began Walker's sixteen-year project to uncover the network of educators behind countless battles—in courtrooms, schools, and communities—for the education of black children. Until now, the courageous story of how black Americans in the South won so much and subsequently fell so far has been incomplete. The Lost Education of Horace Tate is a monumental work that offers fresh insight into the southern struggle for human rights, revealing little-known accounts of leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, as well as hidden provocateurs like Horace Tate. |
| african american educators in history: The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 James D. Anderson, 2010-01-27 James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters. Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination. This conception of education and social order--supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials--conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and their descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires. |
| african american educators in history: Their Highest Potential Vanessa Siddle Walker, 2000-11-09 African American schools in the segregated South faced enormous obstacles in educating their students. But some of these schools succeeded in providing nurturing educational environments in spite of the injustices of segregation. Vanessa Siddle Walker tells the story of one such school in rural North Carolina, the Caswell County Training School, which operated from 1934 to 1969. She focuses especially on the importance of dedicated teachers and the principal, who believed their jobs extended well beyond the classroom, and on the community's parents, who worked hard to support the school. According to Walker, the relationship between school and community was mutually dependent. Parents sacrificed financially to meet the school's needs, and teachers and administrators put in extra time for professional development, specialized student assistance, and home visits. The result was a school that placed the needs of African American students at the center of its mission, which was in turn shared by the community. Walker concludes that the experience of CCTS captures a segment of the history of African Americans in segregated schools that has been overlooked and that provides important context for the ongoing debate about how best to educate African American children. African American History/Education/North Carolina |
| african american educators in history: From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse Christopher M. Span, 2009 In the years immediately following the Civil War_the formative years for an emerging society of freed African Americans in Mississippi_there was much debate over the general purpose of black schools and who would control them. From Cotton Field to Scho |
| african american educators in history: Perspectives of Black Histories in Schools LaGarrett J. King, 2019-11-01 Concerned scholars and educators, since the early 20th century, have asked questions regarding the viability of Black history in k-12 schools. Over the years, we have seen k- 12 Black history expand as an academic subject, which has altered research questions that deviate from whether Black history is important to know to what type of Black history knowledge and pedagogies should be cultivated in classrooms in order to present a more holistic understanding of the group’ s historical significance. Research around this subject has been stagnated, typically focusing on the subject’s tokenism and problematic status within education. We know little of the state of k-12 Black history education and the different perspectives that Black history encompasses. The book, Perspectives on Black Histories in Schools, brings together a diverse group of scholars who discuss how k-12 Black history is understood in education. The book’s chapters focus on the question, what is Black history, and explores that inquiry through various mediums including its foundation, curriculum, pedagogy, policy, and psychology. The book provides researchers, teacher educators, and historians an examination into how much k- 12 Black history has come and yet how long it still needed to go. |
| african american educators in history: Schoolhouse Activists Tondra L. Loder-Jackson, 2016-07-02 Examines the role of African American educators in the Birmingham civil rights movement. |
| african american educators in history: African American Teachers Clinton Cox, 2000-05-22 Learn about the hard times that African American teachers faced throughout history. And see how all their hard work helped change many lives. |
| african american educators in history: Making Black Scientists Marybeth Gasman, Nguyen Thai-Huy, 2019-08-13 Americans have access to some of the best science education in the world, but too often black students are excluded from these opportunities. This essential book by leading voices in the field of education reform offers an inspiring vision of how America’s universities can guide a new generation of African Americans to success in science. Educators, research scientists, and college administrators have all called for a new commitment to diversity in the sciences, but most universities struggle to truly support black students in these fields. Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are different, though. Marybeth Gasman, widely celebrated as an education-reform visionary, and Thai-Huy Nguyen show that many HBCUs have proven adept at helping their students achieve in the sciences. There is a lot we can learn from these exemplary schools. Gasman and Nguyen explore ten innovative schools that have increased the number of black students studying science and improved those students’ performance. Educators on these campuses have a keen sense of their students’ backgrounds and circumstances, familiarity that helps their science departments avoid the high rates of attrition that plague departments elsewhere. The most effective science programs at HBCUs emphasize teaching when considering whom to hire and promote, encourage students to collaborate rather than compete, and offer more opportunities for black students to find role models among both professors and peers. Making Black Scientists reveals the secrets to these institutions’ striking successes and shows how other colleges and universities can follow their lead. The result is a bold new agenda for institutions that want to better serve African American students. |
| african american educators in history: The SAGE Handbook of African American Education Linda C. Tillman, 2008-07-17 This Handbook received an honorable mention at the 2009 PROSE Awards. The PROSE Awards annually recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals, and electronic content in over 40 categories. This volume fills the tremendous void that currently exists in providing a much-needed lens for cultural leadership and proficiency. The approach provides a wide divergence of perspectives on African American forms of leadership in a variety of diverse leadership settings. —Len Foster, Washington State University The SAGE Handbook of African American Education is a unique, comprehensive collection of theoretical and empirical scholarship in six important areas: historical perspectives, teaching and learning, PK–12 school leadership, higher education, current issues, and education policy. The purpose of the Handbook is to articulate perspectives on issues affecting the participation and leadership of African Americans in PK–12 and postsecondary education. This volume also addresses historical and current issues affecting the education of African Americans and discusses current and future school reform efforts that directly affect this group. Key Features Promotes inquiry and development of questions, ideas, and dialogue about critical practice, theory, and research on African Americans in the United States educational system Makes significant contributions to the scholarship on African Americans in the broad context of U.S. education and society Addresses the central question—in what ways do African Americans in corporate, private, and public positions influence and shape educational policy that affects African Americans? The SAGE Handbook of African American Education is a unique, comprehensive collection of theoretical and empirical scholarship in six important areas: historical perspectives, teaching and learning, Pre-K-12 school leadership, higher education, current issues, and education policy. —TEACHERS OF COLOR A wise scientist once argued that to doubt everything or to believe everything often results in the same solution set; both eliminate the need for reflection. This handbook provides an intellectual space for those interested in true reflection on the human ecology of the African American experience in schools, communities, and society. The /Handbook of African American Education/ is a repository of information developed to advance the human service professional. —William F. Tate IV, Washington University in St. Louis This handbook represents the most comprehensive collection of research on African Americans in education to date. Its breadth spans the historical, the political, institutional and community forces that have shaped educational opportunities and attainment among African Americans. The review of extant research on a range of topics from the role of culture and identity in learning, teacher preparation, educational leadership, to higher education and educational policy is far-reaching and cutting edge. This volume has historic significance and will become a classic collection on African American education for scholars and practitioners alike. —Carol D. Lee, Professor, Northwestern University Vice-President, Division G, American Educational Research Association This handbook is needed as a basic reference for professors and graduate students conducting research on the education of Blacks in America. —Frank Brown, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| african american educators in history: Using Past as Prologue Dionne Danns, Michelle A. Purdy, Christopher M. Span, 2015-08-01 In 1978, V. P. Franklin and James D. Anderson co-edited New Perspectives on Black Educational History. For Franklin, Anderson, and their contributors, there were glaring gaps in the historiography of Black education that each of the essays began to fill with new information or fresh perspectives. There have been a number of important studies on the history of African American education in the more than three decades since Franklin and Anderson published their volume that has pushed the field forward. Scholars have redefined the views of Black southern schools as simply inferior, demonstrated the active role Blacks had in creating and sustaining their schools, sharpened our understanding of Black teachers’ and educational leaders’ role in educating Black students and themselves with professional development, provided a better understanding and recognition of the struggles in the North (particularly in urban and metropolitan areas), expanded our thinking about school desegregation and community control, and broadened our understanding of Black experiences and activism in higher education and private schools. Our volume will highlight and expand upon the changes to the field over the last three and a half decades. In the shadow of 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, contributors expand on the way African Americans viewed and experienced a variety of educational policies including segregation and desegregation, and the varied options they chose beyond desegregation. The volume covers both the North and South in the 19th and 20th centuries. Contributors explore how educators, administrators, students, and communities responded to educational policies in various settings including K-12 public and private schooling and higher education. A significant contribution of the book is showcasing the growing and concentrated work in the era immediately following the Brown decision. Finally, scholars consider the historian’s engagement with recent history, contemporary issues, future directions, methodology, and teaching. |
| african american educators in history: Teaching Equality Adam Fairclough, 2001-01-01 In Teaching Equality, Adam Fairclough provides an overview of the enormous contributions made by African American teachers to the black freedom movement in the United States. Beginning with the close of the Civil War, when “the efforts of the slave regime to prevent black literacy meant that blacks . . . associated education with liberation,” Fairclough explores the development of educational ideals in the black community up through the years of the civil rights movement. He traces black educators’ connection to the white community and examines the difficult compromises they had to make in order to secure schools and funding. Teachers did not, he argues, sell out the black community but instead instilled hope and commitment to equality in the minds of their pupils. Defining the term teacher broadly to include any person who taught students, whether in a backwoods cabin or the brick halls of a university, Fairclough illustrates the multifaceted responsibilities of individuals who were community leaders and frontline activists as well as conveyors of knowledge. He reveals the complicated lives of these educators who, in the face of a prejudice-based social order and a history of oppression, sustained and inspired the minds and hearts of generations of black Americans. |
| african american educators in history: African American Educators Elizabeth Massie, 2014-09-02 Without education, it's very difficult to make the most of your talents and abilities. But for much of American history, black people couldn't get an education. In many places it was against the law for slaves to learn to read and write. Despite this, many brave slaves found a way to learn. Some taught themselves. Others sneaked to schools held late at night. Even after slavery was ended in 1865, African Americans continued to be treated unfairly. It was still a struggle for them to get an education. African-American educators stepped up to make a difference. They faced hardship. They often worked for very little pay—or for no pay at all. These educators built schools. They taught their students and stood up for equal rights. They proved that a person's race has nothing to do with his or her ability. |
| african american educators in history: African American Women Educators Karen A. Johnson, Abul Pitre, Kenneth L. Johnson, 2014-03-18 This book examines the lived experiences and work of African American women educators during the 1880s to the 1960s. Specifically, this text portrays an array of Black educators who used their social location as educators and activists to resist and fight the interlocking structures of power, oppression, and privilege that existed across the various educational institutions in the U.S. during this time. This book seeks to explore these educators' thoughts and teaching practices in an attempt to understand their unique vision of education for Black students and the implications of their work for current educational reform. |
| african american educators in history: A Political Education Elizabeth Todd-Breland, 2018-10-03 In 2012, Chicago's school year began with the city's first teachers' strike in a quarter century and ended with the largest mass closure of public schools in U.S. history. On one side, a union leader and veteran black woman educator drew upon organizing strategies from black and Latinx communities to demand increased school resources. On the other side, the mayor, backed by the Obama administration, argued that only corporate-style education reform could set the struggling school system aright. The stark differences in positions resonated nationally, challenging the long-standing alliance between teachers' unions and the Democratic Party. Elizabeth Todd-Breland recovers the hidden history underlying this battle. She tells the story of black education reformers' community-based strategies to improve education beginning during the 1960s, as support for desegregation transformed into community control, experimental schooling models that pre-dated charter schools, and black teachers' challenges to a newly assertive teachers' union. This book reveals how these strategies collided with the burgeoning neoliberal educational apparatus during the late twentieth century, laying bare ruptures and enduring tensions between the politics of black achievement, urban inequality, and U.S. democracy. |
| african american educators in history: Education as Freedom Noel S. Anderson, Haroon Kharem, 2009 Education as Freedom is a groundbreaking edited text that documents and reexamines African-American empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions to knowledge-making, teaching, and learning and American education from the nineteenth through the twenty-first century, a dynamic period of African-American educational thought and activism. Education as Freedom is a long awaited text that historicizes the current racial achievement gap as well as illuminates the myriad of African American voices and actions to define the purpose of education and to push the limits of the democratic experiment in the United States. |
| african american educators in history: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops Susie King Taylor, 1902 |
| african american educators in history: "A Visible Company of Professionals" Carol F. Karpinski, 2008 African American educators shaped a role for themselves in the larger civil rights movement by striving for inclusion, on equal footing, in the National Education Association (NEA). This book explores the relationship between the NEA, the nation's largest teacher organization, and the predominately black American Teachers Association, and illustrates how African American educators helped to redefine the NEA's core ideology to include the support of policies, practice, and politics that promoted educational equity for children and educators who have been historically marginalized. Examining heated debates in African American communities and in the NEA, and the immediate and long-term effects of inclusion on educators and public school children, this book reveals teacher associations as something more than labor unions and educators as activists for educational equity, while it documents the perils, disappointments, and advantages of professional cohesion. The book's documentation of leadership in particularly challenging settings fills a void in literature for teacher preparation and educational leadership programs. |
| african american educators in history: The Mis-education of the Negro Carter Godwin Woodson, 1969 |
| african american educators in history: A Black Women's History of the United States Daina Ramey Berry, Kali Nicole Gross, 2020-02-04 The award-winning Revisioning American History series continues with this “groundbreaking new history of Black women in the United States” (Ibram X. Kendi)—the perfect companion to An Indigenous People’s History of the United States and An African American and Latinx History of the United States. An empowering and intersectional history that centers the stories of African American women across 400+ years, showing how they are—and have always been—instrumental in shaping our country. In centering Black women’s stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women’s unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today. A Black Women’s History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women’s lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women’s history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation. |
| african american educators in history: Teaching for Black Lives Flora Harriman McDonnell, 2018-04-13 Black students' bodies and minds are under attack. We're fighting back. From the north to the south, corporate curriculum lies to our students, conceals pain and injustice, masks racism, and demeans our Black students. But it¿s not only the curriculum that is traumatizing students. |
| african american educators in history: Schooling the Freed People Ronald E. Butchart, 2010-09-27 Conventional wisdom holds that freedmen's education was largely the work of privileged, single white northern women motivated by evangelical beliefs and abolitionism. Backed by pathbreaking research, Ronald E. Butchart's Schooling the Freed People shatters this notion. The most comprehensive quantitative study of the origins of black education in freedom ever undertaken, this definitive book on freedmen's teachers in the South is an outstanding contribution to social history and our understanding of African American education. |
| african american educators in history: The Negro Woman's College Education Jeanne L. Noble, 1987 |
| african american educators in history: First Class Alison Stewart, Melissa Harris-Perry, 2013-08-01 Combining a fascinating history of the first U.S. high school for African Americans with an unflinching analysis of urban public-school education today, First Class explores an underrepresented and largely unknown aspect of black history while opening a discussion on what it takes to make a public school successful. In 1870, in the wake of the Civil War, citizens of Washington, DC, opened the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, the first black public high school in the United States; it would later be renamed Dunbar High and would flourish despite Jim Crow laws and segregation. Dunbar attracted an extraordinary faculty: its early principal was the first black graduate of Harvard, and at a time it had seven teachers with PhDs, a medical doctor, and a lawyer. During the school's first 80 years, these teachers would develop generations of highly educated, successful African Americans, and at its height in the 1940s and '50s, Dunbar High School sent 80 percent of its students to college. Today, as in too many failing urban public schools, the majority of Dunbar students are barely proficient in reading and math. Journalist and author Alison Stewart—whose parents were both Dunbar graduates—tells the story of the school's rise, fall, and possible resurgence as it looks to reopen its new, state-of-the-art campus in the fall of 2013. |
| african american educators in history: Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators Kelly Walters, 2021-03-30 In Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators, Kelly Walters collects twelve deeply personal interviews with graphic design educators of color who teach at colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. The book centers the unique narratives of Black, Brown, and Latinx design educators, from their childhood experiences to their navigation of undergraduate and graduate studies and their career paths in academia and practice. The interviewees represent a cross-section of ethnic and multiracial backgrounds—African American, Jamaican, Indian, Pakistani, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, and Brazilian. Their impactful stories offer invaluable perspectives for students and emerging designers of color, creating an entry point to address the complexities of race in design and bring to light the challenges of teaching graphic design at different types of public and private institutions. Interwoven throughout the book are images that maintain cultural significance, from family heirlooms to design works that highlight aspects of their cultural identities. Readers will gain insight into the multitude of experiences of Black, Brown, and Latinx design educators who teach and work in the field today. |
| african american educators in history: A Narrative of the Negro Leila Pendleton, 1912 An early history of African Americans by an African American woman. |
| african american educators in history: An Architecture of Education Angel David Nieves, 2018 Examines material culture and the act of institution creation, especially through architecture and landscape, to recount a deeper history of the lives of African American women in the post-Civil War South. |
| african american educators in history: Education of Black People W. E. B. DuBois, 1973 |
| african american educators in history: Transforming the Elite Michelle A. Purdy, 2018-08-17 When traditionally white public schools in the South became sites of massive resistance in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, numerous white students exited the public system altogether, with parents choosing homeschooling or private segregationist academies. But some historically white elite private schools opted to desegregate. The black students that attended these schools courageously navigated institutional and interpersonal racism but ultimately emerged as upwardly mobile leaders. Transforming the Elite tells this story. Focusing on the experiences of the first black students to desegregate Atlanta's well-known The Westminster Schools and national efforts to diversify private schools, Michelle A. Purdy combines social history with policy analysis in a dynamic narrative that expertly re-creates this overlooked history. Through gripping oral histories and rich archival research, this book showcases educational changes for black southerners during the civil rights movement including the political tensions confronted, struggles faced, and school cultures transformed during private school desegregation. This history foreshadows contemporary complexities at the heart of the black community's mixed feelings about charter schools, school choice, and education reform. |
| african american educators in history: Encyclopedia of African-American Education Charles A. Asbury, D. Kamili Anderson, Michael Fultz, Sylvia M. Jacobs, Faustine C. Jones-Wilson, Margo Okazawa-Rey, 1996-08-28 This indispensable reference is a comprehensive guide to significant issues, policies, historical events, laws, theories, and persons related to the education of African-Americans in the United States. Through several hundred alphabetically arranged entries, the volume chronicles the history of African-American education from the systematic, long-term denial of schooling to blacks before the Civil War, to the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau and the era of Reconstruction, to Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights reforms of the last few decades. Entries are written by expert contributors and contain valuable bibliographies, while a selected bibliography of general sources concludes the volume. The African-American population is unique in that its educational history includes as law and public policy the systematic, long-term denial of the acquisition of knowledge. In the 18th century, African-Americans were initially legally forbidden to be taught academic subjects in the South, where most African-Americans lived. This period, which ended around 1865 with the conclusion of the Civil War and the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, was followed by the introduction of laws, policies, and practices providing for rudimentary education for 69 years under the dual-school, separate-but-equal policies established by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). These policies did not end until the Brown v. Board of Education decisions of 1954 and 1955 were reinforced by the passage of civil rights and equal opportunity legislation in the mid-1960s. The education of African-Americans has been a continuing moral, political, legal, economic, and psychological issue throughout this country's history. It continues to consume time and attention, and it remains an unresolved dilemma for the nation. Through several hundred alphabetically arranged entries, this indispensable reference offers a comprehensive overview of significant issues, policies, historical events, laws, persons, and theories related to African-American education from the early years of this country to the present day. The entries are written by expert contributors, and each entry includes a bibliography of works for further reading. A selected, general bibliography concludes the volume. |
| african american educators in history: A Forgotten Sisterhood Audrey Thomas McCluskey, 2014-10-30 Emerging from the darkness of the slave era and Reconstruction, black activist women Lucy Craft Laney, Mary McLeod Bethune, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, and Nannie Helen Burroughs founded schools aimed at liberating African-American youth from disadvantaged futures in the segregated and decidedly unequal South. From the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries, these individuals fought discrimination as members of a larger movement of black women who uplifted future generations through a focus on education, social service, and cultural transformation. Born free, but with the shadow of the slave past still implanted in their consciousness, Laney, Bethune, Brown, and Burroughs built off each other’s successes and learned from each other’s struggles as administrators, lecturers, and suffragists. Drawing from the women’s own letters and writings about educational methods and from remembrances of surviving students, Audrey Thomas McCluskey reveals the pivotal significance of this sisterhood’s legacy for later generations and for the institution of education itself. |
| african american educators in history: Ain't I A Woman? Sojourner Truth, 2020-09-24 'I am a woman's rights. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I am as strong as any man that is now' A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of Black women throughout her life. This selection of her impassioned speeches is accompanied by the words of other inspiring African-American female campaigners from the nineteenth century. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists. |
| african american educators in history: The Knowledge Gap Natalie Wexler, 2020-08-04 The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension skills at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention. |
| african american educators in history: Proud Shoes Pauli Murray, 2024-06-25 First published in 1956, Proud Shoes is the remarkable true story of slavery, survival, and miscegenation in the South from the pre-Civil War era through the Reconstruction. Written by Pauli Murray the legendary civil rights activist and one of the founders of NOW, Proud Shoes chronicles the lives of Murray's maternal grandparents. From the birth of her grandmother, Cornelia Smith, daughter of a slave whose beauty incited the master's sons to near murder to the story of her grandfather Robert Fitzgerald, whose free black father married a white woman in 1840, Proud Shoes offers a revealing glimpse of our nation's history. |
| african american educators in history: Radicalizing the Ebony Tower Joy Ann Williamson, Joy Ann Williamson-Lott, 2008-04-12 This is a profoundly moving story of Black colleges in Mississippi during a watershed moment in their history. It is also the story of young Americans trying to balance their pursuit of higher education with the parallel struggle for civil rights. Radicalizing the Ebony Tower examines colleges against the backdrop of the black freedom struggle of the middle twentieth century, a highly contentious conflict between state agents determined to protect the racial hierarchy and activists equally determined to cripple white supremacy. Activists demanded that colleges play a central role in the Civil Rights Movement (a distinct challenge to the notion of the ivory tower) while state agents demanded that colleges distance themselves from the black freedom struggle and promised to mete out harsh penalties if they did not. Through the words and deeds of actual participants, this path-breaking study documents how activists ultimately transformed non-political institutions into libratory agents. |
| african american educators in history: Black Scholar Wayne J. Urban, 2008-07-01 In Black Scholar, Wayne J. Urban chronicles the distinguished life and career of the historian, teacher, and university administrator Horace Mann Bond. Urban illuminates not only the man and his accomplishments but also the many issues that confronted him and his colleagues in black education during the middle decades of the twentieth century. After covering the major events of Bond's youth, Urban follows him from his student years at Lincoln University and the University of Chicago through his work for the Julius Rosenwald Fund to his subsequent administrative leadership at several black institutions, including Fort Valley State College, Lincoln University, and Atlanta University. Among the many details Urban discusses are Bond's prodigious early output of scholarly books and articles, his enduring concern about the biases of intelligence testing, his work on preparing the NAACP's court brief for the Brown v. Board of Educationi case, and his career-long interest in what he felt were the affinities between modern-day Africans and African Americans--the one struggling to break free from colonialism, the other from segregation. |
| african american educators in history: Reading Like a Historian Sam Wineburg, Daisy Martin, Chauncey Monte-Sano, 2015-04-26 This practical resource shows you how to apply Sam Wineburgs highly acclaimed approach to teaching, Reading Like a Historian, in your middle and high school classroom to increase academic literacy and spark students curiosity. Chapters cover key moments in American history, beginning with exploration and colonization and ending with the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
Africa - Wikipedia
African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa. Africa is highly biodiverse; [17] it is the continent with the largest number of …
Africa | History, People, Countries, Regions, Map, & Facts | Britannica
5 days ago · African regions are treated under the titles Central Africa, eastern Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and western Africa; these articles also contain the principal treatment …
Map of Africa | List of African Countries Alphabetically - World Maps
Africa is the second largest and most populous continent in the world after Asia. The area of Africa without islands is 11.3 million square miles (29.2 million sq km), with islands - about …
The 54 Countries in Africa in Alphabetical Order
May 14, 2025 · Here is the alphabetical list of the African country names with their capitals. We have also included the countries’ regions, the international standard for country codes (ISO …
Africa - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
African independence movements had their first success in 1951, when Libya became the first former colony to become independent. Modern African history is full of revolutions and wars , …
Africa: Countries and Sub-Saharan Africa - HISTORY
African History Africa is a large and diverse continent that extends from South Africa northward to the Mediterranean Sea. The continent makes up one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth.
Africa Map: Regions, Geography, Facts & Figures | Infoplease
What Are the Big 3 African Countries? Three of the largest and most influential countries in Africa are Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with a …
Africa - New World Encyclopedia
Since the end of colonial status, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African nations are republics …
Africa Map / Map of Africa - Worldatlas.com
Africa, the planet's 2nd largest continent and the second most-populous continent (after Asia) includes (54) individual countries, and Western Sahara, a member state of the African Union …
Africa: Human Geography - Education
Jun 4, 2025 · Cultural Geography Historic Cultures The African continent has a unique place in human history. Widely believed to be the “cradle of humankind,” Africa is the only continent …
Africa - Wikipedia
African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa. Africa is highly biodiverse; [17] it is the continent with the largest number of …
Africa | History, People, Countries, Regions, Map, & Facts | Britannica
5 days ago · African regions are treated under the titles Central Africa, eastern Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and western Africa; these articles also contain the principal treatment of African …
Map of Africa | List of African Countries Alphabetically - World Maps
Africa is the second largest and most populous continent in the world after Asia. The area of Africa without islands is 11.3 million square miles (29.2 million sq km), with islands - about 11.7 million …
The 54 Countries in Africa in Alphabetical Order
May 14, 2025 · Here is the alphabetical list of the African country names with their capitals. We have also included the countries’ regions, the international standard for country codes (ISO …
Africa - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
African independence movements had their first success in 1951, when Libya became the first former colony to become independent. Modern African history is full of revolutions and wars , as …
Africa: Countries and Sub-Saharan Africa - HISTORY
African History Africa is a large and diverse continent that extends from South Africa northward to the Mediterranean Sea. The continent makes up one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth.
Africa Map: Regions, Geography, Facts & Figures | Infoplease
What Are the Big 3 African Countries? Three of the largest and most influential countries in Africa are Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with a …
Africa - New World Encyclopedia
Since the end of colonial status, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African nations are republics that …
Africa Map / Map of Africa - Worldatlas.com
Africa, the planet's 2nd largest continent and the second most-populous continent (after Asia) includes (54) individual countries, and Western Sahara, a member state of the African Union …
Africa: Human Geography - Education
Jun 4, 2025 · Cultural Geography Historic Cultures The African continent has a unique place in human history. Widely believed to be the “cradle of humankind,” Africa is the only continent with …
