Educator and teacher Sarah Lee Fleming of Brooklyn, New York. Photo credit: Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library.

There are many accomplished educators in American history who have distinguished themselves as community activists. Sarah Lee Fleming, a school teacher from Brooklyn, New York, is one such educator.

Sarah was born Sarah Lee Brown was born in poverty in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 10, 1875. She was raised in Brooklyn, New York. As a young girl, Sarah dreamed of becoming a school teacher. However, her father discouraged this goal, believing that Sarah could only aspire to be a domestic. Little did he know that one day, Sarah would become the first African American teacher in the Brooklyn public school system.

In 1902, Sarah married Richard Stedman Fleming. After their marriage, the couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where Richard became the first African American dentist to practice in the state. The union produced two children: a daughter named Dorothy born in 1903, and a son named Harold born in 1906.

An associate of Mary McLeod Bethune, Sarah channeled her energy into bettering the educational opportunities for African American women. She organized the New Haven Women’s Civic League in 1929, and in 1936, she established the Phillis Wheatley Home for Girls, a shelter for young Black women who had just moved to New Haven in search of employment. In fact, Sarah’s work was recognized by Congress in 1955, the same year she received the Sojourner Truth Scroll from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club.

In addition to her civic work, Sarah was also a published playwright, novelist, and poet named as part of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Sarah’s most notable published works are her novel Hope’s Highway, published in 1918, and a collection of poems entitled Clouds and Sunshine, published in 1920.

Sarah passed away in January, 1963, five days before her 87th birthday.

Left, elementary school teacher Barbara Henry with her former student, Ruby Bridges. At right, Ruby Bridges attending William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1960.

There are many courageous Chalkboard Champions in American history who have worked diligently to improve social conditions for all their students. One of these was Barbara Henry, an elementary teacher from New Orleans who sought to help integrate Louisiana schools during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. She was the teacher of Ruby Bridges, who was the first African American student to attend an all-white school in her city.

Barbara as born January 1, 1932. As a young girl, she attended Girls’ Latin School in Boston. There, she says, she “learned to appreciate and enjoy our important commonalities, amid our external differences of class, community, or color.”

Barbara inaugurated her career as a teacher overseas in schools for military dependents. Those schools were integrated. When she returned to the United States, the adventurous educator and her husband settled in New Orleans. She accepted a position at William Frantz Elementary School.

In 1960, little Ruby Bridges enrolled in the school. Barbara volunteered to teach Ruby, but the decision prompted white parents to remove their children from the class. For more than a year Barbara taught Ruby as her only student in the classroom.

At first, Ruby was nervous about meeting her new teacher, especially when confronted with loud protests going on outside the school. “I had never seen a white teacher before,” Ruby remembered, “but Mrs. Henry was the nicest teacher I ever had. She tried very hard to keep my mind off what was going on outside. But I couldn’t forget that there were no other kids,” she said.

The intrepid and courageous Barbara Henry: A true Chalkboard Champion. To read Barbara’s story in her own words, see this essay written by her published by Scholastic: In Her Own Words.