Category Archives: Education

Tuskegee Airman LeRoy Battle: Educator, musician, veteran

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High school music teacher and Tuskegee Airman LeRoy Battle authored an autobiography entitled Easier Said, published in 1995. Photo Credit: Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

I always enjoy sharing stories about superb educators who have also distinguished themselves in areas outside the sphere of education. One of these is LeRoy Battle, a high school music teacher who was also a fine jazz musician and a heroic Tuskegee Airman.

LeRoy was born Dec. 31, 1921, in the Harlem section of New York City. His father owned a candy store, and his mother worked as a beautician and cook. While a youngster, LeRoy expressed an interest in music. He was able to take music lessons through both the Boy Scouts and the YMCA, where it was obvious he was a natural. By the time he was in the seventh grade, young LeRoy owned his own drum set. After years of learning and practice, the youthful musician was proficient enough to give music lessons as a private tutor.

As a teenager, LeRoy attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. There he played drums in the marching band and the school orchestra. He also performed in New York’s All-City Orchestra, the Harold Cabbell Orchestra, and the Al Bounds Orchestra. By the time LeRoy was a senior, he played with legendary singer Billie Holiday at the Three Deuces Jazz Club. He also worked with Pearl Bailey. After his graduation, the youthful musician joined a traveling band and went on the road.

During WWII, Leroy was drafted. He served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1945 to 1947. Once he earned his silver wings and bars, LeRoy volunteered to join the Tuskegee Airmen. “I can’t say that I ever had any previous aspirations to be a pilot,” he once confessed. “But it sounded like a much better opportunity than anything else that was likely to come along.”  After completing the Tuskegee program at Tuskegee University, gunnery training at Tyndall Field, and bombardier training at Midland Air Force Base, LeRoy joined the 616th Squadron of the 477th Bombardment Group stationed at Freeman Army Air Force Base. For his heroism during WWII, LeRoy garnered the Congressional Gold Medal.

When the war ended, the former pilot continued his studies in music. He returned to New York City and enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music, then part of Morgan State University, a historically Black college located in Baltimore, Maryland. There he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Musical Education. He also earned a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Maryland, College Park.

In 1950, LeRoy accepted a position as a music teacher at Douglass High School in Washington, DC. That year he established a stage band for his students. Over the next eight years, The Douglass High School Band garnered first place in 14 competitions. In 1958, the students became the first African American band featured in the prestigious yearbook First Chair of America. Jet Magazine  also printed a spread on the outstanding young musicians. Before LeRoy retired in 1978, he also served as a guidance counselor and assistant principal. For 17 of those years, he also served as a drummer in the Washington Redskins Marching Band.

Post-retirement, LeRoy continued to make music. From 1992 to 1996 he did session work with jazz musicians Eva Cassidy and Chuck Brown. In addition, he worked as a motivational speaker for the Tuskegee Airmen’s Speaker’s Bureau. And, as if all that wasn’t enough, he authored an autobiography entitled Easier Said, published in 1995.

Sadly, LeRoy passed away on March 28, 2015, in Harwood, Maryland. He was 93 years old. To read more about this remarkable Chalkboard Champion, see his obituary published in the Capital Gazette.

Teacher, coach, and Columbine hero Dave Sanders

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Dave Sanders

Terry Lee Marzell examines plaque honoring slain educator Dave Sanders at the Columbine Memorial in Littleton, Colorado. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

While visiting the Denver area in 2018, I had the unique opportunity to visit the Columbine Memorial which honors the innocent lives lost in the Columbine High School massacre. There I paid homage to Dave Sanders, a truly heroic teacher who lost his life during the shooting.

Dave was born on October 22, 1951, in Eldorado, Saline County, Illinois. He was the youngest of five children. Sadly, his father passed away when Dave was only four years old. Following his father’s death, the young boy was raised by his widowed mother in Newtown, Indiana.

Even as a youngster, Dave excelled at athletics. Known for being a consistent and dependable player, he participated in basketball, baseball, and cross country. After his 1969 graduation from Fountain Central High School in Veedersburg, Dave enrolled at Nebraska Western Junior College in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where he earned his Associate’s Degree. He then transferred to Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education from Chadron in 1974.

That same year, Dave accepted his first teaching position at Columbine High School in an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, near the Denver suburb of Littleon. There he taught business classes, including typing, keyboarding, business, business law, and economics. He also worked with other teachers in the Business Department to organize career days and arrange for guest speakers to visit classes.

Dave Sanders

Chalkboard Hero, teacher, and coach Dave Sanders. Image  courtesy of Conie Sanders

But it was as a coach that Dave truly excelled. Early in his career he coached boys’ baseball, basketball, cross country, and soccer. In his later years, he coached girls’ basketball, softball, and track. In 1995, Dave’s girls’ softball team reached the Class 5A state finals, and the same year, his girls’ basketball team qualified for a coveted berth in the annual Sweet 16 Tournament. “His ability to coach was not so much about his ability to do the sport, but about his ability to analyze the mechanics of the sport, the kinesiology of it,” colleague Joe Marshall once described. “It didn’t matter what he coached. He coached kids, he didn’t coach a sport. He truly devoted himself to the athletes,” Joe continued. In addition to his coaching responsibilities for Columbine, Dave and his colleague, Rick Bath, coached basketball camps, softball tournaments, open batting cage sessions, and a B league girls’ softball program during the summers.

Dave’s career as a teacher and coach spanned 25 years. Tragically, this outstanding educator and coach was shot and killed on April 20, 1999, when two students carried out a mass shooting at Columbine High School. During the massacre, the intrepid teacher organized an evacuation of the area, led a group of approximately 200 students to safety, and warned unsuspecting teachers and students in other classrooms of the danger. He is credited with saving at least 200 lives that fateful day before he succumbed from his gunshot wounds.

For his heroism, Dave Sanders was honored in 1999 with the ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. The same year, he was recognized by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports with the Giant Steps Award for Male Coach. You can read more about him in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes.

Illinois teacher Irene Hunt became an acclaimed author

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Illinois teacher Irene Hunt became an acclaimed author. Photo credit: Bookologymagazine.com

Many teachers are familiar with the historical novels of Irene Hunt: Across Five Aprils, Up a Road Slowly, and The Lottery Rose, for example. But did you know that she was also a distinguished teacher?

Irene was born on May 18, 1907, in Pontiac, Illinois. As a young girl, she spent a great deal of time with her grandfather, who spent countless hours recounting stories of his childhood during the Civil War. These stories eventually became the basis of her historical novels.

Irene earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1939, and her Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1946. She taught English and French in public schools in Oak Park, Illinois, from 1930 to 1945. For the next four years she taught psychology at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. Then she returned to teaching in public schools in Cicero, Illinois, from 1950 to 1969, when she retired to write full time.

Irene’s first book, and her signature work, was Across Five Aprils, published in 1964, when she was 57 years old. The volume garnered high critical acclaim, winning the Follett Award and being named the sole Newbery honor book of 1965 by the American Library Association. It was followed by Up a Road Slowly, published in 1966, which received the Newbery Medal, among other honors.

Irene was a pro at using historical novels in the classroom. She once said, “While teaching social studies to junior high school students, I felt that teaching history through literature was a happier, more effective process.”

Irene Hunt passed away on Mary 18, 2001. It was her 94th birthday. To read more about her, see this biography at Bookology.

Nebraska music educator Anna Sake earns prestigious honors

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Anna Sake

Music educator Anna Sake of Palmer, Nebraska, has been honored as a 2024-2025 recipient of a Performing Arts Educator Award by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Photo credit; Anna Sake

There are many exceptional educators working with young people in schools throughout the nation. One of them is Anna Sake, a music educator from Nebraska. She has been honored as a 2024-2025 recipient of a prestigious Performing Arts Educator Award by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

Anna is the K-12 Music Director at Palmer Public Schools, a rural district located in the town of Palmer in the southern central region of Nebraska. The courses she teaches include K-6 general music, 5th and 6th beginning band, junior high band and choir, and high school band and choir. She is well-known for her innovative teaching and her community engagement. She has led her students to achieve superior ratings in district and regional festivals, and her service in state organizations and her efforts to mentor young educators underscore her dedication to fostering a lifelong love of music in her students, say NFHS officials.

Anna, a Nebraska native, earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Nebraska’s Wayne State College in 2011. She earned her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Wayne State College in 2019. She hold minors in Trumpet, Percussion, and Voice.

The National Federation of State High School Associations, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the national leader and advocate for high school athletics as well as fine and performing arts programs. The organization serves 19,500 high schools and more than 12 million young people in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Each year, the NFHS honors one nominee in each state, honoring music educators that exemplify significant contributions to the music education in the areas of organization, service, and professionalism.

VA teacher Aline Black Hicks launched an important Civil Rights case

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Virginia science teacher Aline Black Hicks launched an important Civil Rights case. Photo credit: Black Then

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.