Tag Archives: African American Teachers

Willa Brown Chappell: The teacher of Tuskegee Airmen

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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 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 blacks 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.

Tennessee’s 2018 Teacher of the Year: Cicely Woodard

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Cicely Woodard

Tennessee’s 2018 Teacher of the Year Cicely Woodard teaches math at West End Middle School in Nashville.

Here is a truly inspirational teacher: Cicely Woodard, who teaches eighth grade math at West End Middle School in Nashville, Tennessee. She’s been named the 2018 Teacher of the Year for the state of Tennessee.

Cicely teaches her students to understand high-level math tasks through small-group discussions and plenty of writing. One of her favorite assignments is for students to solve systems with equations by having them determine the best company to clean her carpets. “They create tables and equations and graphs to compare these two companies,” she explains, “and by the end of the lesson, they have helped me choose the best company,” she continues.

“We have whole class discussions about math, where they justify their thinking and critique the reasoning of their peers,” Cicely says. “Whatever they choose to do in life, I just want them to be prepared to face challenges and face them well.”

Cicely has been teaching for 13 years in Tennessee. In addition to serving in many leadership roles within her school and district, she has also served as an adjunct instructor at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, where she received her Master’s degree.

View the video below to learn more about Cicely:

Honoring teachers who were also veterans

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When celebrating our nation’s veterans today, I like to remember that many of them are also Chalkboard Champions.

cameronface[1][1]I think about Henry Alvin Cameron, an African American schoolteacher who served as an officer in the United States Army during World War I. Henry taught science and coached basketball at Pearl High School in Nashville, Tennessee. At the age of 45, well past the usual age of enlistment, Henry answered the call for African Americans to serve as officers in all-black regiments that were deployed to Europe. Henry served in France and, tragically, was killed in the Battle of the Argonne Forest just days before the war ended. Henry Cameron is pictured here at right.

And then there is Braulio Alonso. Braulio began his teaching career as an instructor of physics and chemistry courses at Henry 0002910439-01-1_06-07-2010[1]B. Plant High School in Tampa, Florida, but when World War II erupted in 1941, he became part of the United States Army. He was immediately sent to officer candidate school, and later he became part of the 85th Infantry Division in North Africa. This teacher-soldier was promoted to Battery Commander for the 328th Artillery Battalion, taking an active part in the Italian campaign. He was among the first Allied soldiers to liberate Rome. By the time he was discharged from the service, Braulio had earned a Bronze Star with Cluster and a Purple Heart. This distinguished veteran is pictured here at left.

Another Chalkboard Champion is veteran LouAnne Johnson, an educator, author, journalist, and former servicewoman in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marines. LouAnne is best known for her book My Posse Don’t Do Homework, which was adapted to the film $R05470FDangerous Minds starring Michelle Pfeiffer in 1995, and a television series starring Annie Potts in 1996. LouAnne enlisted in the Navy in 1971, and served at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. She served nine years on active duty, achieving the rank of Petty Officer First Class. She later transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps, where she rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Throughout her military service, LouAnne earned the Navy  Commendation Medal and the Air Force Achievement Award for her work as a  journalist and a radio-television broadcaster.

After her years of service in the military, LouAnne became an educator at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, where she began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern. Two years later, she was appointed department chair of a special program for at-risk teens. During the government evaluation of ten similar pilot programs, LouAnne’s group was rated first in academic achievement, increased self-esteem, and student retention. Since then, LouAnne has taught English, adult basic education, developmental reading, and writing at high schools and colleges. LouAnne is pictured here at right.

These are but three examples of remarkable Americans who have given years of devoted service to our country in our military, and who have also given years of dedicated service to our kids as fine teachers. We thank them for all their service!

Chalkboard Champion Jacobi Crowley runs for Oklahoma State Senate

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Jacobi Crowley

Chalkboard Champion Jacobi Crowley, a crisis behavior specialist, runs for state senator in Oklahoma.

This year’s mid-term elections have seen a record number of talented and hardworking educators running for public office. One of these is Jacobi Crowley, a special education teacher and crisis behavior specialist from Oklahoma. The Chalkboard Champion is bidding for a seat in the Oklahoma State Senate.

Jacobi garnered the Democratic nomination for Oklahoma State Senate District 32 in his state’s primary elections last June. If the 26-year-old wins the general election in November, he will be the youngest state senator in Oklahoma history. His opponent is Republican state Representative John Montgomery. Jacobi’s two biggest priorities, if elected, would be education funding and criminal justice reform. “I’m running on things that truly affected my life and that truly affected a lot of people’s lives in the state,” he told ABC News in a July 4, 2018, interview.

Jacobi was born to a struggling single parent in 1992 in Lawton, Comanche County, Oklahoma. As a youngster, Jacobi had very few positive male role models. He was raised by his grandmother, who passed away when he was just eight. “My grandmother taught me to be very strong, very precise in what I wanted, and be goal-oriented,” Jacobi remembers. “As an eight-year-old, that’s what I did. And I kept doing things within my life, moving forward, and I always wanted to be somebody and do something with my life.” And, even at a young age, he knew education was the ticket to his success.

After his high school graduation, Jacobi attended Southeastern Oklahoma University, where he graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in Special Education and Behavior Management. While in college, Jacobi participated in the debate team, joined the Young Leaders of America, and played football and basketball.

After college, Jacobi returned to his home town, and for the past three years he has worked with at-risk youth as a crisis behavior specialist in the Lawson Public School District. During that time, he has also coached football and track, refereed basketball games, hosted a weekly radio show, and become an ordained minister.

To learn more about Jacobi Crowley, visit his campaign website at www.jacobi4ok.com.

Jahana Hayes: 2016 Teacher of the Year and candidate for Congress

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Jahanna Hayes

Government and history teacher Jahana Hayes runs for Congressional office as the representative for Connecticut’s 5th District.

In this year’s hotly-contested mid-term elections a record number of impressive teachers are running for public office. One of these is Connecticut’s Jahana Hayes, who was honored in 2016 as the National Teacher of the Year by President Barack Obama. Jahana is running for a seat in the US House of Representatives in her quest to serve Connecticut’s 5th District. If elected in November, Jahana will become the first African American woman of either party to represent part of New England in Congress.

Jahana was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on March 8, 1973. Because her mother was a drug addict, Jahana was raised by her grandmother, and they lived in public housing projects in Waterbury. Even though Jahana became a teen mother at age 17, she overcame her obstacles and worked hard in school. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at Southern Connecticut State and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Saint Joseph. In 2014, she earned her Sixth-Year Certificate from the University of Bridgeport School of Education.

Jahana accepted her first teaching position at Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Later she relocated to John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury, where she taught government and history. In addition, she served as the chairperson of the Kennedy SOAR Review Board, a program for gifted students.

In 2015, Jahana garnered the John F. Kennedy Teacher of the Year award, and then the Waterbury School District Educator of the Year honors. In 2016, the teacher with the dazzling smile was named Connecticut’s Teacher of the Year. The same year President Obama recognized her as the National Teacher of the Year.

Below, view a 4 1/2-minute YouTube video of Jahana taken when she appeared at the 2018 Global Citizen Festival in New York.