I couldn’t resist this video about a terrific choir teacher, Mrs. Gabrielyn Watson of Chicago, Illinois. What a remarkable impact she has had on the lives of her students. Now I share this video with you. Enjoy!
Tag Archives: African American Teachers
Chalkboard Champion Fanny Barrier Williams: Teacher, Activist, Author, and Orator
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Throughout our country’s history, there have been many examples of talented and dedicated educators who have made a mark on society as a whole. On such example is Frances “Fanny” Barrier Williams, a 19th-century teacher and activist.
Born on February 12, 1855, in Brockport, New York, to free parents, Fanny and her siblings attended the local public school. In 1870, Fanny became the first African American to graduate from the State Normal School in Brockport. When the Civil War was over, this energetic educator accepted a teaching position in the south to help educate newly freed slaves.
In 1893, when she was 38 years old, Fanny moved north to the city of Chicago, a city which experienced a boom when it hosted the World’s Fair. When Fanny and other black women leaders protested their exclusion from the fair’s planning, this leading-edge teacher was appointed to gather exhibits for the women’s hall. She was also selected to give two speeches during the fair. In her speeches, Fanny argued to a predominantly white audience that African American women were eager and ready for education and to learn new skills. Fanny’s speeches were so well received that she soon became a popular author and orator.
Once the fair was over, Fanny helped form the National League of Colored Women in 1896. She also donated her energy to assist other African American women when they migrated to northern states.
Fannie Willimas dedicated her whole life to aiding and uplifting those in need, improving inter-racial relations, and working for justice for all. This remarkable chalkboard champion passed away of natural causes on March 4, 1944. She is buried at High Street Cemetery in Brockport, New York.
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Roberta Flack: Public School Teacher and Grammy Award Winning Music icon
Many people have heard of the Grammy Award-winning songwriter and singer Roberta Flack, whose 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 famous jazz, folk, and R&B icon was once a public school teacher?
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born February 10, 1937, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, although 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. She completed her undergraduate work and her student teaching as the first African American student teacher at an all-white school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. Then 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 junior high school in Washington, DC, and at the same time she took 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 free music education to underprivileged students in the Bronx, New York City.
Roberta Flack: Truly a Chalkboard Champion.
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Hail to Carter Godwin Woodson: The Founder of Black History Month
Carter Godwin Woodson is often credited with originating annual Black History Month celebrations. He is also recognized as the first African American of slave parents to earn a Ph.D. in History. To be sure, 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 Carter was required much of his childhood to work on the family farm rather than attend school? As a child he taught himself to read using the Bible and local newspapers. He didn’t finish high school until he was 20 years old. Were you aware that he once worked as a coal miner in Fayette County, West Virginia, and then later went back there to teach school to black coal miner’s children, offering them 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? All these biographical details and more about this fascinating historical figure can be found in my book Chalkboard Champions.
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Chalkboard Champion Fannie Richards: She Fought For Desegregated Schools in Detroit
To me, one of the most remarkable aspects about teachers is their willingness, ability, and dedication to bringing about positive social change. A wonderful example of this is Fannie Richards, a Michigan schoolteacher who worked to desegregate Detroit public schools.
Fannie Richards was born on October 1, 1840, in Fredericksberg, Virginia. Her parents were free African Americans. As a young child, Fannie’s family moved to Toronto, Canada, where Fannie was enrolled in school. When she grew up, Fannie traveled to Germany, where she worked with innovative educator Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel to develop the first kindergartens. When she completed this work, Fannie returned to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan.
Always eager to learn new skills, Fannie enrolled at the Teachers Training School in Detroit, and after her graduation, she became passionate about educating the African-American community of Detroit. Even decades before the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education decision was handed down in 1954, Fannie was advocating desegregation in Detroit schools. In 1863, while the Civil War was still raging, she opened a private school for African-American children in Detroit. A few years later, the Detroit Public School system opened a school for black children, and when Fannie learned the school board planned to open a second school, she applied for a teaching position. In 1869, she was hired to be a teacher in Colored School #2, the first African American teacher to work in Detroit Public Schools.
To Fannie’s delight, in 1871, the Michigan State Supreme Court ordered the integration of Michigan schools. That same year, the school board transferred Fannie to the newly desegregated Everett Elementary school, where she taught for 44 years. As a teacher, Fannie was known for her devotion to the children, using modern pedagogic methods, and maintaining a high standard of scholarship.
Fannie Richards retired in 1922 after more than fifty years as an educator. This chalkboard champion passed away on February 13, 1922, at the age of 81. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
