Tag Archives: African American Teachers

During Black History Month, we celebrate educator Mary McLeod Bethune

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In honor of Black History Month, we celebrate one of America’s most illustrious educators, Mary McLeod Bethune. Photo Credit: National Park Service

In celebration of Black History Month, I would like to shine a spotlight today on one of our country’s most illustrious African American teachers. She is Mary McLeod Bethune.

Mary was born on July 10, 1875, to former slaves in a log cabin on a plantation in Maysville, South Carolina. She was the only one of her parents’ 17 children to be born into freedom. When the Civil War was won, Mary’s mother worked for her former owner until she could buy the land on which the McLeod family grew cotton. By nine years of age, young Mary could pick 250 pounds of cotton a day.

Even as a youngster, Mary showed an unusual interest in books and reading. However, in those days it was rare for African Americans to receive an education. Nevertheless, a charitable organization interested in providing educational opportunities for Black children established a school near Mary’s home. Her parents could scrape together only enough money to pay the tuition for one of their children, and Mary was chosen. Later, the future educator earned a scholarship to attend the Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. She graduated from there in 1894. She also attended Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, Illinois. Her studies there spanned two years.

When she grew up, Mary retained her strong desire to extend educational opportunities to other African Americans. She became a teacher in South Carolina. While there, she married fellow teacher Albertus Bethune. In 1904 Mary founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. Beginning with five students, she helped expand the school to more than 250 students over the next few years. Today, this school is known Bethune-Cookman University.

In her later years, Mary became a close friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and also a trusted adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt. In recognition of her outstanding abilities, the President made her a member of his unofficial “Black Cabinet.” He also appointed her the head of the National Youth Administration in 1936. In 1937 the indefatigable educator organized a conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth, and she fought tirelessly to end discrimination and lynching. In 1940, Mary became the Vice President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP), a position she held for the rest of her life. In 1945, she was appointed by President Harry Truman to be the only woman of color present at the founding meeting of the United Nations.

This celebrated educator passed away peacefully on May 18, 1955. For all her accomplishments, Mary McLeod Bethune is truly a Chalkboard Champion. To read more about her, see this link at the website for the National Women’s History Museum.

Ashley Lockwood named the 2023 State Teacher of the Year for Delaware

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Elementary school teacher Ashley Lockwood named the 2023 Teacher of the year for the state of Delaware. Photo Credit: University of Delaware

It is always a pleasure to share the story of an exceptional educator who has earned honors for their work with young people. One such educator is Ashley Lockwood, an elementary teacher who has been named the 2023 Teacher of the Year for the state of Delaware. Ashley earned the honor in recognition for her superior ability to inspire students with a love of learning, her exemplary demonstration of professional traits, and her strong sense of dedication and devotion to teaching.

Not intending originally to become a teacher, Ashley earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Delaware. Once she discovered her love for the classroom, she earned her Master’s degree in Education from Wilmington University.

In 2013, Ashley inaugurated her career in Maryland teaching special education. She stayed in that position for three years. In 2016, she relocated to Lulu Ross Elementary School in Milford, Delaware. There she teaches fourth and fifth grade inclusion classes. Currently, she teaches the fifth grade Spanish immersion program.

One of Ashley’s favorite books to use in the classroom is The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. The volume tells the story of a Korean girl who moves to the United States. The girl is embarrassed to tell her classmates her name because she’s afraid they will mispronounce it or make fun of her. Ashley says this book helps her show her students how important it is for everyone to create a welcoming environment in the class.

In her continued pursuit of inclusion, in 2020 Ashley founded an Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee for the Milford Education Association. The committee is dedicated to advocating for both students and staff members of color. As the Chair of the committee, she collaborates with colleagues to work towards finding solutions to issues that have to do with inequality.

In addition, Ashley is a member of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League Young Professionals, and she serves as the Kent County Committee Chair. In this role, she develops community service programs for underserved communities. She is also a mentor for new teacher in her district, and she serves as a member of her school’s Positive Behavior Supports Committee.

To read more about Ashley Lockwood, see this article about her published by the University of Delaware.

Teacher Carter Godwin Woodson: The Father of Black History

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Carter Godwin Woodson, the American school teacher who created Black History Month, an annual celebration of the many outstanding contributions African Americans have made to our country. Photo credit: Public Domain

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 American society. But did you know that Black History Month, itself, was the brainchild of a brilliant African American teacher?

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 as a means 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.

Louisiana teacher Maura Lewis featured on local news station

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Here is a story about Maura Lewis, an exceptional teacher from Woodlawn Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She teaches Algebra, computer science, and STEM to seventh and eighth graders. Maura was recently named exceptional educator by her local television news station, WVLA NBC Local 33, and BRProud. She was featured on a recent segment on the television network.

Congratulations, Maura!

Educator Willa Brown Chappell taught Tuskegee airmen to fly

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Public school teacher Willa Brown Chappell also taught Tuskegee Airmen to fly airplanes. Photo Credit: Aviation Heritage Park

Many exceptional teachers can boast achievements outside of their classroom. One of these is Willa Brown Chappell, the first African American woman licensed to fly in the United States.

Willa was born on Jan. 22, 1906, in Glasgow, Kentucky. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Indiana State Teachers College in 1927. She also completed the requirements for an MBA from Northwestern University in 1937. Following her college graduation, Willa was employed first as a high school teacher at Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana, and later as a social worker in Chicago.

Willa was always seeking challenges and adventures in her life, especially if they could be found outside the limited career fields normally open to African American women at that time. She decided to learn to fly airplanes. She studied with Cornelius R. Coffey, a certified flight instructor and expert aviation mechanic at a racially segregated airport in Chicago. Willa earned her private pilot’s license in 1938. Later, Willa and Cornelius married and founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics at Harlem Airport in Chicago, where together they trained Black pilots and aviation mechanics. Willa conducted the classroom instruction and Cornelius conducted the in-flight practice.

In 1939, Willa, Cornelius, and their friend Enoch P. Waters founded the National Airmen’s Association of America. Their goal was to secure admission for Black aviation cadets into the US military. As the organization’s national secretary and the president of the Chicago branch, Willa became an activist for racial equality. She persistently lobbied the US Government for integration of Black pilots into the segregated Army Air Corps and the federal Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), a system established by the Civil Aeronautics Authority just before the outbreak of World War II. The CPTP’s purpose was to provide  civilian pilots for service during national emergencies. Willa was given the rank of an officer in this first integrated unit.

In 1948, when Congress finally voted to allow African Americans to participate in civilian flight training programs, the Coffey School of Aeronautics was one of the few private aviation schools selected to provide training. Later, her flight school was selected by the US Army to provide Black trainees for the Air Corps pilot training program at the Tuskegee Institute. Willa was instrumental in training more than 200 students who went on to become Tuskegee pilots. Eventually, Willa Brown became the coordinator of war-training service for the Civil Aeronautics Authority and a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Women’s Advisory Board. She was the first Black female officer in the Civil Air Patrol and the first Black woman to hold a commercial pilot’s license in the United States.

This remarkable educator and pioneer aviatrix passed away on July 18, 1992. In 2010, Willa was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Indiana State University Alumni Association. She was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in her native Kentucky in 2003.

To find out more about this remarkable Chalkboard Champion, you can read a chapter about her in my book, Chalkboard Heroes, which is available on amazon.com and the website for Barnes and Noble.