Educator Maritcha Remond Lyons: teacher, musician, and published author.

I always love to share stories about teachers who have accomplished heroic achievements. One such teacher is Maritcha Remond Lyons, an African American woman who served the New York City public school system for forty-eight years. She was also an accomplished musician, an avid writer, and a published author.

Maritcha was born on May 23, 1848, in New York City, the third of five children born to parents Albro and Mary (Marshall) Lyons. She was raised in New York’s free black community, where her father operated a boarding house and outfitting store for black sailors on the docks of New York’s Lower East Side. Her parents emphasized the importance of making the best of oneself, and they also modeled the significance of helping others.

A sickly child, Maritcha was nevertheless dedicated to gaining an education. Maritcha once said she harbored a “love of study for study’s sake.” She was enrolled in Colored School Number 3 in Manhattan, which was governed by Charles Reason, a former teacher at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia.

Maritcha’s parents were abolitionists, and were both active in the Underground Railroad. Obviously, these activities were not without dangers. The family home came under attack several times during the New York City Draft Riots of July, 1863, when Maritcha was just a teenager. The family escaped to safety in Salem, Massachusetts, but after the danger passed, her parents insisted on sending their children to lie in Providence, Rhode Island. In Providence, Maritcha was refused enrollment in the local high school because she was African American. Because there was no school for black students, her parents sued the state of Rhode Island and won their case, helping to end segregation in that state. When she graduated, Maritcha was the first black student to graduate from Providence High School.

After her high school graduation, Maritcha returned to New York, where she enrolled in Brooklyn Institute to study music and languages, When she graduated in 1869, she accepted a teaching position at one of Brooklyn’s first schools for African American students, Colored School Number 1.

Maritcha’s worked first as an elementary school teacher, then as an assistant principal, and finally as a principal. During her nearly fifty-year career, she co-founded the White Rose Mission in Manhattan’s San Juan Hill District, which provided resources to migrants from the South and immigrants from the West Indies.

This remarkable chalkboard hero passed away at the age of eighty on January 28, 1929. To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, click on this link to BlackPast.

Lucy Addison of Virginia: For her many contributions to education this amazing woman has been honored as one of Virginia’s Women in History.

There have been many fine African American educators in American history. One of these is Lucy Addison, a teacher and principal from Roanoke, Virginia. For her many contributions to education, this amazing woman has been honored as one of Virginia’s Women in History.

Lucy was born the daughter of slaves in Upperville, Fauquier County, Virginia, on Dec. 8, 1861. Once her family was emancipated, Lucy’s father purchased land and established a farm. Lucy enrolled in the local school.

As a young woman, Lucy attended the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. The Institute was a private school with a reputation for offering a faculty of exceptionally talented Black educators. Lucy earned her teaching degree there in 1882. She took additional courses at Howard University, Hampton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, even though it was difficult for her to come up with the tuition money to pay for the classes.

In spite of racial prejudice, inadequate facilities, and barriers to her advancement, Lucy dedicated her life to a career in education. After she graduated, Lucy returned to her home state of Virginia where she accepted a position in Loudoun County. In 1886, she relocated to Roanoke to teach at the First Ward Colored School.

In 1917, Lucy accepted a position as the principal for the Harrison School. One of her students there remembered that she was prim and proper in appearance, but fair and approachable. The Harrison School was accredited to teach up to grade eight, but under Lucy’s direction, high school level courses were introduced into the curriculum. By 1924, the school had earned accreditation as a high school. The facility became the first school in Roanoke to offer a high school diploma to African Americans.

Lucy retired in 1927 and moved to Washington, DC. She passed away on Nov. 13, 1937, of chronic nephritis. She is interred in National Harmony Memorial Park in Landover, Maryland.

To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this link to Encyclopedia Virginia.

Black History Month originated by educator Carter Godwin Woodson.

This February, educators all over the country are sharing Black History Month with their students. The observance is an annual celebration of the many important  contributions African Americans have made to our society. But did you know that Black History Month, itself, was the brainchild of a brilliant American teacher?

Educator Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950)  is credited with organizing and advocating annual Black History Month celebrations in American schools, starting in 1926. Certainly this is an admirable accomplishment in and of itself, but there is so much more to learn about this outstanding educator.

Did you know that, as a youngster, Carter was forced to work on the family farm rather than attend school? Nevertheless, he taught himself to read using the Bible and local newspapers. He didn’t finish high school until he was 20 years old. Did you know that he once worked as a coal miner in Fayette County, West Virginia, and then later went back there to teach school to the children of Black coal miners, serving as a personal role model for using education to get out of the mines? And did you know that Carter taught school in the Philippines, and then became the supervisor of schools, which included duties as a trainer of teachers, there?

This Chalkboard Champion was one of the first to study African American history, to collect data, oral histories, and documents, and to publish his findings in a scholarly magazine he published, The Journal of Negro History. For these accomplishments, and many more, Carter Godwin Woodson has been called the “Father of Black History.”

To read more about this fascinating historical figure, check out the chapter I have written about him in my first book, Chalkboard Champions.