Many talented educators have also made important contributions to our country’s political arena. Such is the case with Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, a special education teacher from North Carolina.

Elizabeth Duncan was born June 3, 1919, Salisbury, North Carolina, the daughter of two educators. She was the youngest of their seven children. Elizabeth was only four years old when she was enrolled in elementary school, but she had already mastered the ability to read and write. The child excelled as an elementary school student, even helping her mother with the lessons of illiterate adult learners that her mother was tutoring in reading. ”I knew then that teaching was for me,” she related years later.

In 1935, Elizabeth graduated as the salutatorian from Salisbury’s segregated Price High School. Three years later, in 1938, she graduated from Livingstone College with a bachelor’s degree in English and elementary education. In 1941, she earned her master’s degree from Atlanta University. She also completed courses from Columbia University, North Carolina College, and the University of Indiana.

Elizabeth inaugurated her career as an educator when she accepted a position as a fourth grade teacher in North Carolina. Particularly interested in helping children with disabilities, she became a special education teacher at Price High School in Salisbury, North Carolina. She spent her entire career championing equal rights and better opportunities for African Americans, women, and the working poor. In 1968, this dedicated educator became the first African American president of the National Education Association.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed her to be an advisor to the US Secretary of Labor. She also served as the director of the Women’s Bureau. At the end of President Nixon’s first term Elizabeth returned to North Carolina to coordinate the nutrition programs for the Department of Human Resources. From 1975 until her retirement in 1982, she served as Assistant State Schools Superintendent.

Elizabeth’s many contributions did not go unnoticed. She was given the North Carolina Award for Public Service in 1977, and in 2006, Elizabeth Duncan Elementary School in Salisbury was named in her honor.