Tag Archives: African American Teachers

Willa Brown Chappell: She taught Tuskegee Airmen how to fly

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Many exceptional teachers use their instructional expertise to work with students outside of the classroom. Willa Brown Chappell, the first African American woman licensed to fly in the United States, is an excellent example of this.

Willa was born January 22, 1906, in Glasgow, Kentucky. She earned her 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 as a high school teacher at Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana, and later as a social worker in Chicago.

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Willa Brown Chappell

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 Americans at that time. She decided to learn to fly, studying 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 a pool of civilian pilots for use during national emergencies. Willa was given the rank of an officer in this first integrated unit.

In 1948, when Congress finally voted to allow separate-but-equal participation of African Americans in civilian flight training programs, the Coffey School of Aeronautics was one of a select few private aviation schools selected for participation. 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.

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Special Ed teacher Carol King-Grant of South Bronx, NYC, succumbs to Covid-19

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Beloved Special Education teacher Carol King-Grant, who taught sixth grade in South Bronx, succumbed to Covid-19 on April 6, 2020.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of yet another beloved educator who has succumbed to Covid-19. Carol King-Grant, a Special Education teacher from the South Bronx in New York City, passed away on April 6, 2020. She was 58 years old.

Carol taught sixth grade at Mott Hall Science and Technology Academy. The school offers a rigorous math, science, and technology curriculum. In addition, the staff strives to create a school culture characterized by academic excellence, healthy personal growth for all students, and a strong belief that all students can succeed in their endeavors.

Carol’s career at Mott spanned only four years. Although her time there was short, Carol was known for her unfailing smile, her kind heart, and her devotion to her students. Those who knew her also appreciated her sense of humor, her hard work, and her candor. “As a fellow educator, I am so proud of the woman my cousin Carol King-Grant was,” remarked mourner Aziza Leitch. “She never spared words, and you always knew exactly what she was thinking!”

Among her interests outside of the classroom were gardening, completing sudoku puzzles, and reading. In addition, Carol was a talented singer and an avid coin collector. She was adept at interior decorating. She was a member of the Liberty Bible Fellowship Church in Ozone Park, Queens, and supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

To read more about Carol, see her obituary published by the United Federation of Teachers.

Dr. Ruth Flowers: Chalkboard Champion of Colorado

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Award-winning educator Dr. Ruth Flowers of Boulder, Colorado. (Fair Use Photo)

American history is rich with the stories of amazing Black Chalkboard Champions. One of these was Ruth Flowers, an award-winning educator from Boulder, Colorado.

Ruth was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on March 10, 1903. Her father was a bricklayer, and her mother was a dressmaker. Ruth’s father abandoned the family before Ruth was born, and her mother passed away when Ruth was only 11. The young child was raised by her grandmother. In 1917, Ruth moved with her grandmother to Boulder, Colorado. There she attended Boulder High School. During her high school years, Ruth worked at jobs in a laundry and in a restaurant to help support her family.

After she completed her high school courses in 1920, Ruth enrolled at the University of Colorado, where she majored in foreign language. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1924. For the next four years, Ruth taught language at Claflin College in South Carolina. During these years, she returned to Boulder every summer to continue her education and to take care of her aging grandmother. In 1930 she completed the coursework for her Master’s degree in French and Education.

Once she earned her Master’s degree, Ruth relocated to Washington, DC, where she accepted a position at Dunbar High School. She taught there from 1931 to 1945. Ruth was always looking for additional opportunities to gain more education. She enrolled in night courses at Robert F. Terrell Law School, where she earned a law degree in 1945. In 1937, she married her law school classmate, Harold Flowers. In 1945, Ruth left the classroom and practiced law with her husband.

Ruth returned to school in 1951 to work on a PhD in Foreign Languages and Literature. For this degree she enrolled at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. This done, Ruth taught as an Associate Professor of Spanish at North Carolina College in Durham, North Carolina. The school is now known as North Carolina Central University. In 1958, she spent a year in Spain.

In 1959, Ruth returned to Boulder, where she accepted a position as the Chair of the Foreign Language Department at Fairview High School. She taught courses in Spanish and Latin there. She was the first African American teacher to work in the Boulder Valley School District. She taught there until her retirement in 1967.

During the 1970-1971 school year, Ruth came out of retirement to teach a course in African American literature as part of the Black Studies program at the University of Colorado.

For her superior work in the classroom, Ruth garnered a Teacher of the Year award from Harvard University in 1969. She was also named Bicentennial Mother of Achievement by the state of Colorado in 1975.

Ruth Flowers passed away on November 20, 1980, in Boulder. She was 77 years old. To read more about this amazing Chalkboard Champion, see this link to BlackPast.

Beloved Detroit educator and coach Dwight Jones succumbs to Covid-19

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Beloved educator and coach Dwight Jones (front row, left) with the Mumford High School girls basketball team and their 2017 championship trophy. Dwight passed away from Covid-19 on March 29, 2020. Photo credit: Mumford High School

Sadly, Covid-19 has claimed the life of yet another beloved educator. Dwight Jones, a retired basketball coach from Mumford High School in Detroit, Michigan. He was 73 years old when he succumbed to the disease on March 29, 2020.

Dwight first made a name for himself as a teenager in the early 1960s. He was one of the very few African Americans enrolled at Holy Redeemer High School, a private Catholic high school located in southwest Detroit. At 6’5″ and 230 pounds, he was unparalleled at rebounding. In fact, he earned the nickname “Hawk” throughout the Catholic League. In those days, he was involved in football, baseball, and track and field in addition to basketball. At the same time, he earned top grades.

The well-rounded student earned a full-ride scholarship to Tennessee State in Nashville. There he played on the basketball team. He pledged to the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Dwight returned to Detroit, and in 1970 he accepted a position at Mumford High School. There he taught physical education and coached both girls and boys basketball. He also coached track and field, cross country, and tennis, and he served as the school’s Athletic Director. His career there spanned nearly five decades.

In addition to helping his young players develop their athletic talents, Dwight also worked hard to get them into college, whether it was a Division I or II school, or a historically Black college. “When he took over as Athletic Director, he was all about grades,” remembered Mumford colleague and former student Kevin Jackson. “Words can’t express what he meant to us.”

To read more about this legendary local hero, read this online story published by Detroit News.

Educator, librarian, lecturer, and Civil Rights activist, Pauline Young

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Educator, librarian, lecturer, and Civil Rights activist, Pauline Young.

Often have I marveled at how much America’s teachers contribute to the social betterment of society as a whole. One teacher who made such contributions was Pauline Young, an African American educator, librarian,  lecturer, and Civil rights activist from Massachusetts.

Pauline was born on August 17, 1900, in West Medford, Massachusetts. Her father was a caterer and her mother was an English teacher. After her father’s death, Pauline’s mother moved with her children to Wilmington, Delaware. Pauline often said that her Delaware childhood home was a “wayside inn and an underground railroad for visiting Negroes and white literary friends, who wouldn’t go to the hotel, you know, since the hotel wouldn’t admit Negroes.” WEB DuBois, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and James Weldon Johnson were among the guests who visited her home.

As an adolescent, Pauline attended Howard High School, the only school in Delaware that admitted Black students. Both her mother and her aunt, who was married to poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, were teachers at the school. After her graduation from high school, Pauline enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania. She was the only African American student in her class. At this school Pauline earned a Bachelor’s degree in History and English in 1921.

Once she earned her degree, Pauline accepted a position to teach social studies and Latin at Huntington High School, a school for Black students in Newport News, Virginia. Later she was hired to be the librarian at her alma mater, Howard High School. During her tenure there, Pauline also taught History and Latin. Her career spanned 36 years, from 1919 to 1955.

During her years as a teacher at Howard, the indefatigable educator accomplished a myriad of other achievements. In 1935, Pauline completed the requirements for a graduate degree from the Columbia University School of Library Service. She also traveled to the Southwest, where she taught courses at the University of Southern California. This amazing educator next went to Alabama, where she completed courses in pilot training at the Coffey School of Aeronautics in Chicago, Illinois, and flight instruction at Temple University. Pauline then taught  courses in pre-flight at Howard High School. In addition to these pursuits, the intrepid educator also worked actively for the NAACP and the United Service Organizations (USO), and collaborated on writing projects with WEB DuBois.

Pauline’s career at Howard spanned 36 years, from 1919 to 1955. After her retirement from Howard High School, Pauline helped to found the American Federation of Teachers. She also traveled to Jamaica, where she served as a teacher for the Peace Corps from 1962 to 1964. While there, she helped train librarians and library staff members. She also served as a librarian of the Jamaican Scientific Research Council. She worked on the Jamaican library’s first indexing system, where over 80,000 books were cataloged.

Once Pauline returned to the United States, she accepted speaking engagements and substitute teaching assignments. In 1968, she instructed a course in Afro-American history at the Central YMCA in Wilmington, Delaware.  She also became active in the Civil Rights Movement. She even met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and participated in his 1963 March on Washington. She also took part in King’s March for Equality from Selma to Montgomery, as well as other peaceful protests.

This remarkable educator passed away on June 26, 1991, in Wilmington. She was 91 years old. For her lifetime achievements, Pauline was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Delaware Women in 1982. She also garnered recognition from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Association of University Women.

To read more about Pauline A. Young, see this link by historian Judith Y. Gibson at the University of Delaware.