Tag Archives: African American Teachers

Chalkboard Champion Mary Hatwood Futrell: Teacher and former president of the NEA

Posted on by
Mary Hatwood Futrell

Chalkboard champion Mary Hatwood Futrell, teacher and former president of the NEA

One of the most amazing chalkboard champions I have ever researched is Mary Hatwood Futrell, a high school business teacher from Virginia who was eventually elected president of the National Education Association (NEA).

Mary was born in Altavista, Campbell County, Virginia, on May 24, 1940. Young Mary was raised by a single mother, who worked as a housekeeper and factory worker. When she became an adult, Mary established a relationship with her biological father, a construction worker.

As a teenager, Mary attended Dunbar High School in Lynchburg, Virginia. There she participated in cheerleading, student government, Future Business Leaders of America, and the National Honor Society. After her high school graduation in 1958, Mary enrolled in Virginia State University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Business Education In 1962.

Mary accepted her first position as a teacher at Parker Gray High School, a segregated school located in Alexandria, Virginia. She taught there from 1962 to 1964. In 1965, the young teacher moved to George Washington High School, where she was instrumental in integrating the teaching staff. She taught business courses at George Washington until 1980. While there, Mary pursued her Master’s degree in Secondary Education from George Washington University. She completed the degree requirements in 1968.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Mary was active in the teachers’ union. She worked her way up the ranks, and was eventually elected president of the National Education Association (NEA) in 1983. Only the fourth person of color to be elected to that office, she served there until 1989. During her three terms as NEA president, Mary led the organization to achieve gains in civil and human rights, especially women’s rights. Because of her tireless efforts, the NEA created the Mary Futrell Award to recognize individuals who have made a significant impact on education and on the achievement of equal opportunities for women and girls.

In 1992, this amazing educator joined the faculty of George Washington University. In 1995, she was promoted to Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She also served as the director of the George Washington Institute for Curriculum Standards and Technology. She did all this while earning her doctorate in Education Policy Studies. Mary has also served in a number of other important organizations. She was the president of the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession; The Virginia Education Association; Education International; and ERAmerica.

To guide fellow teachers in their search for best practices, the former classroom teacher has published numerous scholarly articles about the pedagogy of teaching. “When the uncapped potential of a student meets the liberating art of a teacher,” Mary once wrote, “a miracle unfolds.”

For her work in education policy and reform, Mary has been awarded numerous honors and awards, including more than 20 honorary degrees. To learn more about this amazing chalkboard champion, see her biography at History Makers.

Dr. Mary Frasier: Trailblazer for under-represented students who are gifted and talented

Posted on by
Dr. Mary M. Frazier

Dr. Mary Frasier,, a trailblazer for under-represented students who are gifted and talented

Often, classroom teachers identify a concern in their classroom, and then go on to produce groundbreaking research to address that concern. This is true of Dr. Mary Frasier, a trailblazer for under-represented students who are gifted and talented.

Mary Frasier was born on May 17, 1938, in the segregated town of Orangeburg, Orangeburg County, South Carolina. An extremely intelligent youngster, she skipped two grades, and enrolled in college on a scholarship when she was in the 11th grade.

Mary earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education when she was only 19 years old. While teaching school, she earned her Master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling from South Carolina State College. She earned her Doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Connecticut.

As an educator, Mary devoted her considerable energy towards improving education for gifted and talented students, especially those in low-income or minority populations. She developed the groundbreaking F-TAP, the Frasier Assessment Profile, an assessment tool that was significantly better for assessing the abilities of low-income and minority children than tests previously used.

Then, to advance educational opportunities for minorities and low-income students who were gifted, Mary founded the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development in the College of Education at the University of Georgia, Athens. Also, she served as the president of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) from 1987 to 1989.

For her work in the field of education, Mary earned many honors. In 1990, she received the EVE Award for Achievement in Education from the Athens Daily News/Banner-Herald. The NAGC awarded her their Distinguished Service Award in 1991. In 2002, she was recognized as the Aderhold Distinguished Professor, one of the highest honors the College of Education at the University of Georgia, Athens, can confer.

This gifted and talented educator passed away on February 3, 2005, in Athens, Georgia. You can read more about her at the website of the University of Georgia at Mary Frasier. If you prefer, here is a very nice YouTube video about Dr. Frasier created by Amy Hill in 2016.

Science teacher and Civil Rights activist Theodora Smiley Lacey

Posted on by
Theodora Lacey

Teacher and Civil Rights activist Theodora Lacey

Throughout American history, teachers have often been the agents of positive social change. Science teacher and Civil Rights activist Theodora Smiley Lacey is a fine example of this.

Theodora Smiley was born in 1932 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her father was a high school principal, and her mother was also an educator. Theodora’s mother and Rosa Parks were childhood friends, and as a child, Theodora was surrounded by individuals who sought to improve conditions for the African American community.

Theodora graduated with her Bachelor’s degree from Alabama State College. In 1965, she earned her Master’s degree at Hunter College in New York City. She started her career in education as a science teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Later she taught in schools in Louisiana, New York, and New Jersey. By the time she retired in 2007, Theodora’s career as an educator spanned 42 years.

When Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, was arrested for sitting in an area of a public bus that was designated for white customers only, the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched. Working side-by-side with Dr. Martin Luther King, Theodora worked tirelessly for the Movement. She drove boycotters to their jobs, raised funds, typed press releases, conducted voter registration, and worked as a general go-fer. During the boycott, Theodora met fellow activist Archie Lacey, a science professor at Alabama State College. They married on April 29, 1956. Four children were born to the couple, two of whom were baptized by Dr. King.

In the late 1950s, Theodora and her family moved north to escape the racism and segregation of the South. By 1961, they landed in Teaneck, Bergen County, New Jersey. There she and her husband worked to integrate local public schools. In addition, they joined the Fair Housing Council of Northern New Jersey, which became instrumental in helping to pass the 1968 anti-discrimination federal legislation known as the Fair Housing Act. Before Archie passed away in 1986, Theodora and her husband founded an organization called Teens Talk About Racism, an organization for young people which encourages teens to take action to bring about the positive social change they seek.

For her outstanding work as an educator, Theodora has earned many honors. She was recognized by the New Jersey State Senate as one of the Garden State’s Outstanding Women of New Jersey. She was also named Most Outstanding Secondary School Teacher by Princeton University and Teacher of the Year from the Teaneck School District. She earned the Outstanding Educator Award from the Teaneck Chamber of Commerce, and the Teacher Training Institute gave her a Master Teacher Award.

To learn more about Theodora’s work, you can read the article Civil Rights Activist Recounts Her Struggle, or check out the website Teens Talk About Racism.org.

The teaching career of Grammy Award-winner Roberta Flack

Posted on by
Singer, songwriter, and former schoolteacher Roberta Flack

Singer, songwriter, and former schoolteacher Roberta Flack

Many people have heard of Grammy Award-winning songwriter and singer Roberta Flack. Her best-known songs are “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” and “Where Is the Love?” But did you know that this celebrated jazz, folk, and R&B icon was once a public school teacher?

Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born February 10, 1937, in Black Mountain, Buncombe County, North Carolina. She was raised in Arlington, Virginia. Her mother was a church organist, so Roberta grew up in a musical household. At the age of nine, Roberta began to study classical piano, and by the time she was fifteen, she had won a music scholarship to Howard University. Howard is a traditionally Black college located in Washington, DC.

Roberta completed her undergraduate work, and then her student teaching at an all-white school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She was the first African American student teacher to work at that school. After her college graduation, Roberta accepted a position teaching music and English in Farmville, North Carolina, a gig which paid her only $2,800 per year. She also taught in Washington, DC, at Browne Junior High and Rabaut Junior High School. While she was teaching, she took a number of side jobs as a night club singer. It was there that she was discovered and signed to a contract for Atlanta Records. The rest, as they say, is music business history.

In recent years, Roberta’s contribution to education came when she founded an after-school music program entitled “The Roberta Flack School of Music” to provide music education free of charge to underprivileged students in the Bronx, New York City. The program is offered through Hyde Leadership Charter School. You can learn more about this program at this link: Roberta Flack School of Music.

Yvonne Busch: Music teacher, band director, and jazz musician

Posted on by
Yvonne Busch

Yvonne Busch leading her band at George Washington Carver High School.

Gifted educators often earn recognition for their accomplishments outside of the classroom. One of these is Yvonne Busch, a music teacher, band director, and jazz musician well-known in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Yvonne was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1929, the daughter of a longshoreman and a homemaker. She was raised in nearby Treme, a community with a reputation for a lively music scene. At just 11 years old, Yvonne persuaded her parents to allow her to enroll at Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi. Piney Woods is a privately-funded, historically African American boarding school well-known for its music education programs. There Yvonne played the trumpet and toured with the school’s all-girl band. The band performed at dances, clubs, and USO events throughout the American South and Midwest.

In 1943, Yvonne returned home to New Orleans, where she continued her music education at Gilbert Academy. She studied under the school’s music director, T. LeRoy Davis. It was during this time that the young woman decided to become an educator. She enrolled in the teacher training program at Southern University in Baton Rouge. While completing her coursework there, Yvonne joined the university’s jazz band, eventually becoming the band’s assistant director.

Once she completed her education, Yvonne returned to New Orleans, where she accepted a position as a public school teacher. Over the next three decades, she taught at Booker T. Washington School, Joseph S. Clark School, and George Washington Carver High School. As a teacher and band director, Yvonne often faced crippling shortages of funding and instruments. To combat this, she often contributed her own instruments, and persuaded her friends to donate more. As a teacher, she encouraged her students to play multiple instruments. Yvonne was so dedicated to her students that she offered free private lessons and organized summer practice sessions for her students.

In all, Yvonne’s impressive career spanned a total of 32 years. “Miss Busch was a lot like jazz,” remembered former student Herlin Riley. “She was intense, but she was relaxed. She had rules, but she would give you the freedom to explore. She stressed discipline, but she encouraged self-expression.”

This amazing chalkboard champion passed away in New Orleans on February 28, 2014, at the age of 84. To read more about her, see Yvonne Busch or her obituary at Yvonne Busch, New Orleans Music Educator.