Tag Archives: African American Teachers

Teacher Mary Kennedy Clark: She worked to make the world better

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Mary Kennedy Carter, pictured here at right, with three of her siblings.

Many talented educators are often passionate about social causes and work to make the world a better place. This is true of Mary Kennedy Carter, a social studies teacher from Ohio who became involved in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

Mary was born on January 13, 1934, in Franklin, Ohio, the youngest of six children. Her father was a barber and her mother was a teacher. In her home, a great deal of emphasis was placed on getting a good education, and the Kennedy children were taught to take pride in their African heritage. As a child, Mary made friends with both Black and White children, although she was raised in a segregated community and was subjected to blatant racism. Mary felt the sting of prejudice first-hand. When she graduated from high school, she qualified to be the valedictorian of her class, but was not given the honor because of this bigotry.

The sting didn’t keep her down, however. Mary enrolled at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Once she earned her Bachelor’s in Elementary Education and History, she taught for several years in predominantly Polish elementary schools in Dayton, Ohio, and in San Diego, California.

In 1963, Mary was granted a teacher’s fellowship from Teachers for East Africa, an organization affiliated with Columbia University in New York City, where she had earned her Master’s in Curriculum and Teaching. This fellowship allowed her to travel to Lira, Uganda, to become a trainer of educators at Canon Lawrence Teachers College. In Uganda she came into contact with African people of power: presidents, diplomats, and officials of many African countries. She also supervised Peace Corps student teachers and served as an assistant to the director of teacher preparation in the East Africa Orientation Program. At the end of her fellowship, this remarkable educator was asked to stay in Uganda; however, she declined and returned to the United States.

Once she returned home, Mary moved to New York City to work as an editor and writer for the textbook publishers McGraw-Hill. There she met her husband, Donald Carter. Mary left McGraw-Hill when offered the opportunity to create the Black History program for the Roosevelt School District in Long Island, New York. While there, she arranged many prominent speakers to address high school students, including Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play Major League Baseball, and Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcom X. In time, Mary went on to teach in Rockville Center Schools in Long Island, where she established popular after-school youth clubs that promoted diversity, multiculturalism, and anti-violence.

After retiring from Roosevelt Schools, Mary became a field supervisor and adjunct professor at Hofstra University, where she worked closely with student teachers. She also worked with the New York State Council for the Social Studies as part of a team that developed and field-tested an anti-racism curriculum entitled New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance. In 2005, the curriculum won the Program of Excellence Award from the National Council for the Social Studies.

In her later years, Mary Kennedy Carter was a member of the New York State Amistad Commission, an organization established by the state legislature to research the best way issues of race could be taught in America’s social studies classrooms. Near the end of her career, Mary became a full professor at Hofstra University where she supervised student teachers, conducted workshops, and taught social studies methods and educational issues classes. Most of her students were white and were raised in largely white suburban communities, so a major focus of her courses involved helping them to recognize the importance of diversity. “All students need to know the history of Africa and Egypt and the contributions they have made to world history,” Mary once expressed. “This is not just something to be taught to Black children. They also all need to understand that many White people played important roles in the struggles for minority rights,” she said.

Mary Kennedy Carter was also a noteworthy author. In 1970 she published On to Freedom, a 55-page narrative about a slave family planning to escape to freedom. In addition, she  contributed articles to of Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion and Civil Rights activist passed away on December 14, 2010. She was 76 years old.

Florida teacher Chanique Davis uses door art to teach inclusivity

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Florida teacher Chanique Davis uses door at to send messages of inclusion to her students. Photo credit: WFTS Tampa Bay

One of the most exciting activities that take place during Black History Month is the door-decorating contests. And one of the most creative teacher to create decorated doors is Chanique Davis, an elementary school teacher from Lake Alfred, Florida. She uses the door art to send messages of inclusion to her students.

Chanique teaches art at Lake Alfred Elementary School in Polk County. She began decorating her classroom door when she first started teaching at the school five years ago. In addition to creating displays for Black History Month, the innovative teacher decorates her door for other cultural events, including Hispanic Heritage Month and Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. “I really wanted to create an image for my students to see that represented them in every different culture,” Chanique explained. “Something that they could be excited about and something that would bring about discussion in my class.”

Her clever displays are more than just decorations, Chanique says. They are an innovative teaching tool. “I want them to be better people. I want them to grow up being great individuals,” she continues. “The doors are ways that I can teach them life and not just art. I put the two of them together with art and life together, and that’s what I use these doors for,” she concludes. She even persuades the students to have input on the design and content of the doors.

“When these kids see these doors, they are so excited,” asserts Chanique. “They think. They’re wowed by it, and a lot of them are involved in the creation of the piece.”

Chalkboard Champion Septima Poinsette Clark: Activist of the Civil Rights Movement

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Chalkboard Champion and activist Septima Poinsette Clark was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. Photo credit: Charleston Raconteurs

Chalkboard Champion and activist Septima Poinsette Clark was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. Martin Luther King, Jr., often called her “The Mother of the Movement.” In fact, this remarkable educator earned the Martin Luther King, Jr., Award in 1970, the Living Legacy Award in 1979, and the Drum Major for Justice Award in 1987.

Septima was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 3, 1898. Her father was born a slave, and her mother, although born in Charleston, was raised in Haiti and never experienced slavery. After Septima graduated from high school in 1916, she didn’t have the money to finance her college education. Nevertheless, she landed a position as an elementary teacher in a school for African American Gullah children on John’s Island in South Carolina’s Sea Islands. By 1919, Septima returned to Charleston to teach sixth grade at Avery Normal Institute, a private academy for Black children. Before long, Septima became involved with the Charleston’s chapter of the NAACP, which inaugurated her involvement in Civil Rights activities. In the 1940s, Septima was finally able to return to school, taking summer school courses to earn her college degree. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Benedict College and her Master’s from Hampton University.

In the 1950s Septima found herself working at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. She was instrumental in fighting against Jim Crow laws by organizing citizenship schools to teach underprivileged African Americans basic literacy skills, voter registration techniques, and the history of the Movement. At Highlander, Septima served as the director of workshops, trained teachers, and recruited students.One of the participants in her workshops was Rosa Parks. Shortly after participating in the Highlander workshops, Rosa helped launch the now-famous Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Septima Clark passed away on John’s Island on December 15, 1987, of natural causes. This talented and dedicated teacher was 89 years old.

STEM educator Sharita Ware named Indiana’s 2022 Teacher of the Year

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Congratulations to Sharita Ware of Lafayette, Indiana, who has been named her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Purdue University

Congratulations to Sharita Ware, an engineering and technology education teacher from Lafayette, Indiana! She has been named her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.

In her tenth year as a professional educator, Sharita teaches seventh and eighth graders at East Tipp Middle School at the Tippecanoe School Corporation in Lafayette. Her real-world, problem-based curriculum presents students with challenges that will help them contribute to their community. Included among the projects her students have worked on are designing prosthetic legs for Barbie dolls, building race cars, and programming robots.

Sharita also hosts after-school activities which provide students with opportunities to be innovative and creative through such programs as FIRST Lego League, the Monday Maker Hour, and March Maker Magic. “Our maker space gives kids freedom. You will have desired learning outcomes, but the way that they get to that learning outcome could be totally different from student to student and group to group,” says Sharita. “It is messy, and it’s hard for some teachers to have it be that messy. Sometimes, you think, ‘Is anything happening here?’ Kids will do projects completely different from each other, but they will learn the same thing,” she continued. “It’s pretty awesome to watch — if your nerves can handle it,” she concluded.

Sharita earned her Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering Technology from the Purdue Polytechnic Institute in 1993. She earned her Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from Purdue University in 2013. In addition, she is certified in the Gateway to Technology program sponsored by Project Lead The Way. She worked in engineering and marketing in the private sector for a number of years before become an educator.

In addition to her honors as Indiana State Teacher of the Year, Sharita is a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow in the STEM Goes Rural program at Purdue University. She was also involved in the College of Technology Leadership and Innovation Advisory Board from 2014 to 2019.

Read more about Sharita Ware in this article published by Purdue University.

Teacher Dorothy Randolph Peterson promoted the Harlem Renaissance

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Teacher Dorothy Randolph Peterson was active in promoting the Harlem Renaissance and preserving African American art and culture. Photo credit: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Often, fine educators dedicate their considerable energy and passion to serving the interests of art and culture. One of these was Dorothy Randolph Parker, a New York City teacher who actively promoted the Harlem Renaissance and worked to preserve African American art and culture.

Dorothy was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 21, 1897. She was the daughter of diplomat Jerome Bowers Peterson, who worked as the US Consul in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela for one year, and Deputy Collector for the Internal Revenue Service, including several years in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During her childhood, Dorothy lived in Venezuela from July, 1904, to July, 1905, and in Puerto Rico from July, 1913, to July, 1920.

After her graduation from a Puerto Rican high school, she completed some classes at a university on the island. In the 1920s she relocated to Harlem, where she taught Spanish and attended New York University. In Harlem, Dorothy hosted literary salons, which were in vogue in those days. She also served as an early patron of Fire!!, a quarterly journal which promoted young Black artists.

With friend and librarian Regina Anderson, Dorothy co-founded the Negro Experimental Theater, also known as the Harlem Experimental Theater, in 1929. Even writer and historian WEB DuBois was involved in the enterprise. The group performed plays written by young Black authors. At least one of these plays was written by Regina Anderson herself. The theater’s largest and most successful performance was “Wade in the Water,” in 1929. The play starred Dorothy alongside prominent Harlem Renaissance actress Laura Bowman. The Harlem Experimental Theater became an inspiration to similar theater groups all over the country, and an encouragement to Black playwrights.

Later Dorothy worked to preserve African American art and culture. To achieve this goal, she founded the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters at Yale University and the Jerome Bowers Peterson Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Heroes at Wadleigh High School in Harlem.

Dorothy passed away on November 4, 1978,