Educator and suffragist Katherine Devereux Blake
Educator and indefatigable suffragist Katherine Devereux Blake
Teachers are often among the first to throw their boundless energy into campaigns that benefit society as a whole. One of these was Katherine Devereux Blake, a teacher who became an influential suffragist.
Katherine was born in Manhattan, New York, on July 10, 1858. Her mother was well-known pioneer suffragist, newspaper correspondent, and novelist Lillie Devereux Blake.
Katherine earned her college degree in 1876 from what later became Hunter College. Following her graduation, she inaugurated her career as a public school teacher in New York City. By 1894 she accepted a position as the principal of the Girls Department of Public School 6. This school was renamed the Lillie Devereux School in 1916. Katherine served PS 6 as its principal for 34 years, until her retirement in 1927.
Throughout her career as an educator, Katherine Blake used her influence to champion causes that benefited both teachers and students. She promoted improvements in classroom lighting and sanitation, the reform of school textbooks, and night school for women. In addition, she actively worked for the National Education Association (NEA). She served on a number of committees that promoted teacher benefits, good relationships between public schools and the NEA, and the election of women to the New York Board of Education. Katherine was one of nineteen teachers selected to accompany Dr. John Dewey on his official visit to Russia in 1928.
Not only was Katherine Blake an outstanding educator, but she was also an influential journalist, suffragist, and peace activist. During her summer vacations from 1911-1919, she campaigned for women’s suffrage in California, New York, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In New York, she was the leader of nearly 15,000 teachers who worked for women’s suffrage. In the 1915 parade sponsored by the Woman Suffrage Association, Katherine marched at the front of a group of nearly 500 teachers.
Katherine Blake was also an active and outspoken peace activist. She was a member of the Ford Peace Expedition in 1915-1916, and she also served as the New York Chair of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was the chief spokesperson for the Disarmament Caravan, which toured 9,000 miles in 1931 to carry a disarmament petition to President Herbert Hoover and to the International Disarmament Conference in Geneva. The petition was comprised of nearly seven million signatures. Katherine traveled to Geneva repeatedly to attend the League of Nations Assembly as a newspaper correspondent. In 1938 she traveled abroad to study refugee problems.
This remarkable woman and chalkboard champion passed away on February 2, 1950, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was 91 years old. She is interred in Union Cemetery in Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
To read more about Katherine Devereux Blake, see this biographical sketch about NAWSA Suffragists.
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Former teacher and Grey’s Anatomy actor Jesse Williams
Jesse Williams, former history teacher and television actor famous for his role on Grey’s Anatomy.
Many excellent classroom teachers also distinguish themselves in the entertainment field. One teacher who has done this is Jesse Williams, a high school history teacher from Philadelphia who is well-known as an actor on Grey’s Anatomy.
Jesse was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 5, 1981. As a child, Jesse attended schools in the Chicago area. As a teenager, he attended Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated in 1998. Jesse’s parents were very interested in the educational field. Not long after Jesse graduated from high school, his parents accepted positions in the public school system.
As a young man, Jesse attended college at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he majored in African American Studies and Film and Media Arts. After he earned his Bachelor’s degree, Jesse accepted a position teaching American Studies, African Studies, and English in a low-income public charter school.
Jesse’s passion for teaching stemmed from his childhood experiences in the classroom. “I grew up in Chicago in an under-served community, over-crowded classrooms that sometimes had two grades in a classroom,” Jesse once confided. “Then I moved to a suburban area and had a healthy public school experience. I found this incredible chasm between two of the many Americas we have. I got a much better education and resources because of my zip code,” he continued. “I wanted to be part of the solution, so I started working in my community when I was at Temple University,” he said. Jesse’s career as an educator spanned six years.
In 2009, Jesse was cast in the role of Dr. Jackson Avery on the hit television show Grey’s Anatomy. He has also made appearance on Law & Order and Beyond the Break. His feature credits include Brooklyn’s Finest, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, Cabin in the Woods, the Butler, and Band Aid.
As a celebrity, the former teacher has used his influence to improve conditions for African Americans. For this work, Jesse won a BET Humanitarian Award. During his acceptance speech, the former teacher highlighted the evils of racial injustice and cultural appropriation.
To read more about Jesse Williams, read this online article published the Daily Press.
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Educator and history-making mountain climber Fay Fuller
Educator and history-making mountain climber Fay Fuller
There are many fine teachers who have distinguished themselves in fields outside of education. One of these is Evelyn Fay Fuller, a teacher who was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Rainier.
Evelyn was born on October 10, 1869, in New Jersey. As a child, her family called her Fay. When young Fay was just twelve years old, her family moved to Tacoma in the state of Washington. Even as a child, Fay expressed great interest in exploring wilderness areas.
In 1885, at the end of Fay’s sophomore year, her high school closed abruptly. The fifteen-year-old continued her education on her own, while simultaneously teaching children at Tacoma’s Longfellow Elementary School.
Later Fay accepted teaching positions at Rosedale and at Yelm in Washington. While teaching in Yelm, famed mountain climber Philemon Van Trump visited her school. He had earned the distinction of being one of the first climbers to ascend nearby Mount Rainer. The pair soon became good friends.
Through Van Trump’s influence, the intrepid young teacher set herself the goal of climbing to the summit of Mount Rainier. She made her first attempt to climb the mountain in 1887. To prepare for the climb, Fay blackened her face with charcoal and wore goggles to reduce the sun’s glare. Her climbing outfit included heavy flannel underwear, a thick blue flannel bloomer suit, woolen hose, heavy calfskin boy’s shoes, and a straw hat. She later commented that her costume was assembled “at the time when bloomers were unknown, and it was considered quite immodest.”
On her first climb, Fay reached an elevation of 8,600 feet. Three years later, on August 10, 1890, the intrepid 21-year-old finally achieved her goal of reaching the summit. She was the first woman to make the climb successfully. As the story goes, the next party to climb the mountain found Fay’s hair pins on the trail and joked that the find proved a woman really had made it to the summit!
Shortly after her history-making climb, Fay left the teaching profession to go into journalism. She became the first woman reporter for the Tacoma Ledger, where she wrote a column covering mountaineering news. She also became instrumental in founding alpine clubs in Tacoma and in Portland, Oregon.
In 1900, Fay relocated to Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York City, where she continued her career as a journalist. In New York she married, and the newlyweds settled in Santa Monica, California.
This amazing educator and mountain climber passed away in Los Angeles on May 27, 1958. She was 88 years old. She is interred in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. After her passing, Fay Peak in Mount Rainier National Park was named in her honor.
To read more about Fay’s climb, read this article published by the Historylink.org.
