To me, one of the most remarkable aspects about teachers is their willingness, ability, and dedication to bringing about positive social change. A wonderful example of this is Fannie Richards, a Michigan schoolteacher who worked to desegregate Detroit public schools.
Fannie Richards was born on October 1, 1840, in Fredericksberg, Virginia. Her parents were free African Americans. As a young child, Fannie’s family moved to Toronto, Canada, where Fannie was enrolled in school. When she grew up, Fannie traveled to Germany, where she worked with innovative educator Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel to develop the first kindergartens. When she completed this work, Fannie returned to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan.
Always eager to learn new skills, Fannie enrolled at the Teachers Training School in Detroit, and after her graduation, she became passionate about educating the African-American community of Detroit. Even decades before the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education decision was handed down in 1954, Fannie was advocating desegregation in Detroit schools. In 1863, while the Civil War was still raging, she opened a private school for African-American children in Detroit. A few years later, the Detroit Public School system opened a school for black children, and when Fannie learned the school board planned to open a second school, she applied for a teaching position. In 1869, she was hired to be a teacher in Colored School #2, the first African American teacher to work in Detroit Public Schools.
To Fannie’s delight, in 1871, the Michigan State Supreme Court ordered the integration of Michigan schools. That same year, the school board transferred Fannie to the newly desegregated Everett Elementary school, where she taught for 44 years. As a teacher, Fannie was known for her devotion to the children, using modern pedagogic methods, and maintaining a high standard of scholarship.
Fannie Richards retired in 1922 after more than fifty years as an educator. This chalkboard champion passed away on February 13, 1922, at the age of 81. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
