Category Archives: Education

Virginia science teacher Aline Black Hicks: She launched an important Civil Rights case

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Virginia science teacher Aline Black Hicks launched a important Civil Rights case.

Often times teachers are at the forefront of movements that benefit entire groups of people in our society. One of these teachers was educator Aline Black Hicks, a high school science teacher who launched an important civil rights court case about equal pay.

Aline was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 23, 1906. As a young girl, she attended Booker T. Washington High School in her home town. After her graduation, she earned her Bachelor’s degree from Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute. The school is known today as Virginia State University. Aline earned her Master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1935.

The neophyte educator inaugurated her career as a teacher when she accepted a position at her alma mater, Booker T. Washington, in 1924. She taught science and chemistry. As an African American, she earned only two-thirds the salary earned by a white teacher doing the same job. Although it was later determined to be a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, this was a common practice in that time.

In 1939, Aline filed a lawsuit against the Norfolk School Board, asking that they base teachers’ salaries on experience and education rather than race. She had the backing of the Norfolk Teachers Association, the Virginia State Teachers Association, and the NAACP. One of her attorneys was Thurgood Marshall, who later became an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court. Unfortunately, Aline was fired in retaliation for her lawsuit. Once she was no longer employed by the school district, her case was dismissed. However, her lawyers took the case forward with another local teacher, Melvin O. Alston. Eventually the case went all the way to tour nation’s highest court, where the issue was eventually decided in favor of the African American plaintiffs.

In 1941, the Norfolk School board rehired Aline to teach at the school where she had formerly worked. From 1970 to 1973, she worked at Jacox Junior High School as an Instructional Development Specialist until she retired in 1973.

In 2008, Aline was named a Notable African Americans in Virginia History by the Library of Virginia. In 1971, she garnered the Norfolk “Backbone Award” by the Education Association for her contribution to financial, educational and social equality.

This chalkboard champion passed away in Norfolk on August 22, 1974. To read more about her, consult this article in Encyclopedia Virginia.

KISS musician Gene Simmons: Flamboyant rocker and former sixth grade teacher

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Gene Simmons: Flamboyant musician and make-up wearing, tongue-wagging rocker once taught sixth graders in Spanish Harlem.

Almost everyone has heard of the rock band KISS. But did you know that the band’s vocalist, Gene Simmons, was once an elementary school teacher? This flamboyant make-up wearing, tongue-wagging rocker taught sixth graders in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City.

Gene was born on August 25, 1949, in Tirat Carmel, Israel. At birth, his mother, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, name him Chaim Witz. When he was eight years old, he immigrated to the United States with his mother. They landed in New York City. His father remained in Israel with his other children. Once he arrived in the United States, Chaim changed his name to Eugene Klein, adopting his mother’s maiden name. 

Upon his high school graduation, Gene attended first Richmond College and then Sullivan County Community College, both located in New York. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education. A master of languages, Gene speaks Hungarian, Hebrew, Turkish, High German, Japanese, Spanish, and English.

Before he inaugurated his career as a performer, Gene worked a number of odd jobs in New York City. He served as a deli cashier, an office temp, and an assistant to an editor of the fashion magazine Vogue. He also taught sixth graders at PS 75 in Spanish Harlem.

To be honest, Gene’s career as a teacher was very short. “The reason I quit after six months,” the rocker once explained, “is that I discovered the real reason that i became a teacher. It was because I wanted to get up on stage and have people notice me,” he confessed. “I  had to quite because the stage was too small.Forty people wasn’t enough. I wanted forty thousand,” he concluded.

Gene still supports education. Not too long ago he filmed a British reality television show called Rock School in which he formed a rock band from a group of classically-trained children at a  prestigious English boarding school.

To read more about Gene’s career as a rocker, click on this link to A&E Biography.

Victoria Kornfield: Former English teacher and Maine State Rep

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Former English teacher and Maine State Representative Victoria Kornfield, second from left, with students from James F. Doughty School in Bangor.

Many excellent teachers also establish successful careers in politics. One of these is Victoria Kornfield, an English teacher from Maine who is now serving her fourth term in her state’s House of Representatives.

This chalkboard champion earned her Master’s degree in Teaching and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Administration. After she earned her degrees, Victoria worked as a teacher of English and public speaking in the Bangor Public School System. Her career spanned a total of 37 years, 30 of those at Bangor High School.

In 2012, Victoria was elected on the Democratic ticket to represent District 125, which includes part of the town of Bangor in Penobscot County. Currently she is serving her fourth term. As a member of the House, Victoria has been selected the Chair of the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs. Formerly she was the House Chair of the Task Force to End Student Hunger in Maine.

To read more about Victoria Kornfield, click on this link: James F. Doughty School News.

New York’s Mary Eato: Dedicated educator and hard-working suffragist

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Teachers are typically among those citizens who work the hardest for the benefit of society as a whole. One of these teachers is Mary Eato, an African American educator who also fought valiantly for women’s suffrage.

Mary Eato (who is also known as Mary Eaton) was born in New York City, New York, on Sept. 23, 1844. Mary was the daughter of Sarah Jane Eato, a dressmaker, and Timothy Eato, a Methodist preacher. Marys childhood was rough. As an African American, she battled rampant racism. And when her father died in 1854, her mother was left to raise their seven children alone.

In Jul, 1861, Mary earned her teaching certificate from a New York normal school. She was the only African American graduate in her class. She was only 16 years old when she began teaching elementary students in New York City’s “colored schools.” She taught first at Grammar School No. 3 on 41st Street and later at Grammar School No. 80 on 42nd St.

Intent upon honing her professional skills, Mary went back to school where, in 1891, she earned a Master’s degree in Pedagogy from the University of the City of New York.

While teaching, Mary met Sarah Garnet, the first African American woman to become a school principal in New York City. Garnet founded the Colored Women’s Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn. Mary joined the organization, and even served as its vice president in 1908. The group worked tirelessly to abolish both gender and race bias in New York City.

In her role as vice president, Mary presided over most of the meetings and events of the Equal Suffrage League which took place during her tenure. She helped the club organize a celebration in honor of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. She regularly invited speakers to address the group about topics related to women’s suffrage. She organized the formal readings of papers or poems, and the singing of women’s suffrage songs. She also organized a vote to accept an invitation to work with the Inter-Urban Association, an organization in New York that coordinated the efforts of 23 local clubs to work together for womens suffrage.

In addition to her membership in the Equal Suffrage League, the dedicated educator was a longtime member of St. Mark’s Methodist Episcopal Church. For a time she served as the church’s treasurer. She also held offices in St. Mark’s Mutual Aid Society, the New York African Society for Mutual Relief, and a branch of the African American Council. In addition, Mary helped establish and run the Hope Day Nursery for Colored Children, which was founded in 1902. For many years Mary served vice president of that organization.

In all, Mary devoted 44 years to the classroom. She retired in 1904. This chalkboard champion passed away on Feb. 8, 1915. She was 70 years old.

To learn more about the work of Mary Eato, read this article by Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello published by The Gotham Center for New York City History.