Tag Archives: African American Teachers

Black History Month inaugurated by teacher Carter Godwin Woodson

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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, socially conscious teachers all over the United States are launching their classes into Black History Month, an annual celebration of the many outstanding contributions African Americans have made to our country. But did you know that Black History Month, itself, was the brainchild of a brilliant American teacher?

Educator Carter Godwin Woodson is credited with organizing and advocating annual Black History Month celebrations in American schools. He is also recognized as the first African American born of enslaved parents to earn a PhD in History. Admittedly, these are noteworthy accomplishments. But there is so much more to this brilliant man’s life story than is usually publicized.

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 Carter 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 model for using education to get out of the mines? 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? And did you know that he 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? 

To read more about this fascinating historical figure, check out my book, Chalkboard Champions.

Ohio music teacher Hortense Parker Gilliam first Black graduate of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

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Hortense Parker Gilliam, a music teacher originally from Ohio, was the first known African American graduate of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Photo credit: Mount Holyoke

Throughout history, our lives have been genuinely enriched by legions of music teachers who have nurtured the love of music in young people. One such music teacher was Hortense Parker Gilliam, an elementary school music teacher who is the first known African American graduate of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

Hortense Parker was born in Ripley, Ohio, in 1859, the fourth of six children born to John Parker and Miranda (Boulden) Parker, a free black couple. Her mother was born free in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father was born into slavery, but in 1845 he was able to buy his freedom. John Parker became a noted abolitionist, inventor, and industrialist. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, John guided hundreds of slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad. In fact, the Parker home has been renovated and is now designated a National Historic Landmark.

Hortense’s parents were determined that all of their children should get an education. As children, Hortense and her two younger sisters received a standard education in traditional subjects. They also studied music. After her high school graduation in 1878, Hortense enrolled in Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, now known as Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Her expenses were paid by a wealthy patron. The institution did not know she was a woman of color until she arrived on campus, but they did not cast her out. On the contrary, Hortense lived on campus in a dormitory along with 250 other students. Unlike many institutions of her day, Mt. Holyoke did not require its Black students to live off campus. Hortense was remembered by her classmates as “a quiet ladylike girl, noted especially for her musical ability.” Because of her exceptional musical abilities, faculty and fellow students alike often asked her to play the piano in the seminary in the evenings after classes were done. She had aspirations to continue her music education in Europe upon her graduation, but unfortunately her patron passed away during her senior year. She graduated in 1883.

After graduating from college, Hortense taught music and piano at Lincoln Elementary School in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1906-1913. That same year she married James Marcus Gilliam, a graduate of Cornell University, and moved with him to St. Louis, where she taught music. During her long career, she also taught music at schools in New York and Indiana.

As the first African-American graduate of Mt. Holyoke, Hortense was featured in Our Path: Students of Color at Mt. Holyoke at the 2007 Alumnae Student Conference there.

Sadly, this Chalkboard Champion passed away on December 9, 1938, near St. Louis, Missouri. She was 79 years old.

Virginia sharecropper’s daughter becomes teacher and community icon

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Virginia sharecropper’s daughter Margaret Hill rose to become a teacher, administrator, and school board member. She was considered an icon in her Southern California community. Photo credit: Precinct Reporter group.

There are many examples of fine educators who have risen from poverty to make a significant community to their community. One of these was Margaret Hill, a teacher, administrator, and school board member who was considered an icon in her Southern California community.

Margaret was born in Virginia, the daughter of an African American sharecropper. Even as a young child, her life on the farm was busy. Before starting school, she worked in the fields with her father. She got up early every morning, even on weekends, to feed chickens and slop hogs. She picked cotton in the hot sun, even on holidays. In her school years, she studied late into the night, often by candlelight. Margaret said that back then, in the days of segregation and coming out of the Depression, education took a back seat to farm work for most Black children. She said they all had to make a contribution to help keep the family from starving.

But Margaret always knew the value of education. Eventually, she earned her Bachelor’s degree at Norfolk State University and, after relocating to California in 1969, she earned her Master’s degree in Educational Administration from California State University, San Bernardino. Later, the inspirational educator was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Redlands in Redlands, California.

Margaret inaugurated her teaching career in 1971 at San Bernardino High School in San Bernardino. Later she served as an Assistant Principal at the school, and then she was promoted to principal of San Andreas High School, a position she held for the last sixteen years of her career. Margaret retired in 2003. But in 2011, Margaret came out of retirement when she was elected to the San Bernardino City Unified Board of Education.

Throughout her career, Margaret earned the admiration of her fellow educators. “She was a North Star for the San Bernardino community reading race relation issues,” remarked colleague Herbert Fischer. He noted that Margaret achieved great success dealing with foster kids, and students suffering from poverty and homelessness. She even earned the nickname “Mother Hill” in the education community.

In addition to her professional responsibilities, Margaret served as a member of the Black Culture Foundation and the San Bernardino African American Committee. She also was a member of the Highland Woman’s Club, the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Inc., the San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation, the Time for Change Foundation, the Sheriff’s Department Information Exchange Committee, Kiwanis of Greater San Bernardino, and the San Bernardino Police Department Citizen Advisory Group.

Margaret was also an author. She authored two children’s books. Her first book, It’s All about the Children, was published in 2011. Her second book, From Sharecropping to Non-Stopping: Reflections on Life from A Veteran Educator, was published in 2015. She also penned a weekly column about education for her local newspaper, The Sun.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away in on December 19, 2021. She was 81 years old.

 

Mississippi teacher La’Keshia Johnson featured in Time Magazine

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For her work in and out of the classroom, Mississippi kindergarten teacher La’Keshia Johnson was featured in an article by Time Magazine. Photo credit: Okolona Municipal School District.

So many of our nation’s educators have gone above and beyond the call of duty to provide for their students during the pandemic—not just meeting their educational needs, but providing meals for those who needed food, helping with housing, acquiring clothing, and assisting with emotional support. One of these is La’Keshia Johnson, who teaches kindergarten at Okolona Elementary School in Okolona, Mississippi.

For much of last year, teacher La’Keshia made it her mission to ensure her kindergarten students in the rural town of Okolona, Mississippi, received their breakfasts and hot lunches, even in the midst of the pandemic. She never missed a day of delivering meals to them, even though it meant assembling them and riding the bus to deliver them herself. “We wanted to make sure every student was taken care of,” she explained. “You’re so accustomed to seeing their smiling faces up and down the hall. The pandemic kind of took that away.”

Because her students were isolated at home, La’Keshia penned and mailed letters to her kids modeled after the Flat Stanley books. She encouraged them to write back and include pictures with their “Flat Ms. Johnson” cutouts.

When Okolona schools returned to in-person instruction, La’Keshia drew satisfaction from watching her students enter the classroom unable to recognize the letters of the alphabet, but leave with the ability to read a book out loud.

For her outstanding work within and beyond her classroom, La’Keshia Johnson was featured in the Time Magazine article entitled “Educators who Saved a Pandemic Year” published in September, 2021. She truly is a chalkboard Champion.

Anna Julia Cooper: Teacher, abolitionist, activist, and suffragist

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Teacher, abolitionist, activist, and suffragist  Anna Julia Cooper, born into slavery, was one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D.  Photo credit: www.blackpast.com.

There are many talented educators who have dedicated themselves to social causes. One of these was Anna Julia Cooper, an African American teacher who was also an abolitionist, activist, and suffragist.

Anna was born into slavery in Raleigh, North Carolina, circa 1858. As a young child, she developed an intense love of learning, even though teaching literacy skills to African Americans were forbidden until after the Civil War. Because of her love of learning, Anna decided to become a teacher. In 1868, when she was only nine years old, Anna garnered a scholarship to St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute. The school, now known as St. Augustine’s College, was founded by the local Episcopal Diocese to train teachers to educate former slaves and their families. During her years at St. Augustine’s, Anna earned a reputation as a bright and ambitious student.

In 1879, Anna enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio. There she earned her degree in Mathematics in 1884. She was one of the first African American women to earn a degree at the school. After her graduation, Anna returned to Raleigh where she taught math, Greek, and Latin at St. Augustine’s. In 1887, she moved  to Washington, DC, to teach math and science at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth. Later the school was known as the M Street School, and today the institution is called Dunbar High School. The school is the largest and most prestigious public high school for African Americans in the country. During the years she taught at the M Street School, Anna delivered many speeches calling for civil rights and women’s rights and she published A Voice from the South, a well-known book on the subject.

A lifelong learner, Anna studied French literature and history for several years before enrolling at Columbia University in 1914. There she pursued her Ph.D. At the time, she was also teaching full time. In 1924, Anna continued her studies at the University of Paris at the Sorbonne in France. In 1925 she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, which explored the attitudes of the French people toward slavery during the late 18th century in France and Haiti. With this accomplishment, she was only the fourth African American woman in the US to earn a doctorate and the first Black woman from any country to do so at the Sorbonne.

To learn more about this amazing educator, click on this link for Rutgers.