Teacher and Civil Rights activist Idella Jones Childs was named to the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame. Photo credit: Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame

Many dedicated educators also work towards improving society as a whole. One of these was Idella Jones Childs, an elementary school teacher from Alabama who made a significant contribution to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Idella was born on June 21, 1903, in Perry County, Alabama. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Alabama State University, and her teaching certificate from Lincoln Normal School. She inaugurated her career as an educator when she accepted a position to teach algebra, biology, social studies, and history in segregated Perry County schools. Her career as an educator there spanned the next  35 years.

All her life, this amazing teacher was a tireless advocate for the equality and dignity of all people. During the Civil Rights Movement, she even volunteered her home in Marion to be a meeting place for activists.

In 1982, Idella founded the Perry County Arts and Humanities Council, an organization which provided the children of her rural county with a variety of cultural experiences. She was also a member of the Perry County Retired Teachers Association, the Girl Scouts, the Marion Perry County Library Board, the Alabama Black Heritage Council.

As if all that were not enough, in 1985, she was appointed to fill an unexpired term on the Marion City Council, the first African American woman to serve on that entity. She was 79 years old at the time. In the next election, she was elected in her own right to continue in the position.

For her work in the classroom, the community, and the Civil Rights Movement, Idella earned many accolades. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter named her an honorary member of the National Commission on the International Year of the Child. In 1993, when NASA was commemorating the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, she earned their Unsung Heroes Award. In addition, in her name, the Alabama Historical Commission’s Black Heritage Council distributes an annual award known as the Idella Childs Distinguished Service Award. The honor “recognizes people who have contributed to the preservation of African American historic places.” She was also inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002.

Idella Jones Childs passed away at the age of 85 on August 8, 1998, in the county where she had spent so many years as a teacher. She is buried at Marion Cemetery in Marion in Perry County, Alabama.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a towering figure in American history. In May, 2021, author Terry Lee Marzell visited the memorial erected to honor this Civil Rights icon, erected in Washington, DC. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

The annual celebration of Martin Luther King Day is always a somber day for me. As a child of the 1960’s, I was just 13 years old when the icon was assassinated in 1968.  Before his death, I remember watching televised speeches from the beloved minister and revered Civil Rights leader, who called for the fair and equitable treatment of all American citizens, regardless of skin color. As a speaker, MLK was mesmerizing.

Like many young teenagers, I was at an age when I was developing an acute sense of fairness and justice—not just for myself, but for all people—and an awareness that as a society there was a great deal of work to be done in this area, even in a country so great as America. I was becoming a socially conscious being. MLK’s message of resonated, not only with me, but also for millions of people of all ages. Like millions of American citizens throughout our country, his murder hit me hard.

As an educator, I was often given the opportunity to lead my students in a study of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. His employment of repetition, metaphor, simile, and analogy are as wonderful as his oratorical skills. This speech is a delight to the English teacher.

MLK was a towering figure in American history, and the memorial erected in Washington, DC, to honor this amazing historical figure depicts this. I visited the monument in May, 2021. I love this monument, which concretely shows the unfinished nature of MLK’s work. There is still a great deal of work to be done.

Elementary school teacher Jeanne Manford gained notoriety when she marched next to her son, Morty Manford, in a 1972 gay rights parade in New York. Later she founded PFLAG, which earned her a Presidential Citizens Medal in 2012. Photo credit: SFGATE.

Many American schoolteachers have worked diligently on social causes near and dear to their own heart. One of these was Jeanne Manford, a New York elementary school teacher who worked diligently to advance the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in this country.

Jeanne was born on December 4, 1930 in Flushing, Queens, New York. After earning her Bachelor’s degree from Queens College in the late 1930’s, Jeanne accepted a position as a teacher at PS 32 in Queens. She taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade there for 26 years.

Following a vicious attack in 1972 on her gay son, Morty, Jeanne and her husband, Jules, founded a local support group for parents of gays and lesbians. “She never thought twice about it. She fought for him,” recalled Jeanne’s daughter, Suzanne Swan. “This was a 5-foot-2, thin, blond woman who had a spine of steel. She just did what she knew to be right,” Swan continued.

Over time, the group Jeanne founded grew into the international organization known as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG. It now boasts more than 350 chapters and more than 200,000 members and supporters in the United States.

Jeanne’s work on this social cause was so appreciated that she was named the Grand Marshal of New York City’s Gay Pride March in June, 1991. She was also the Grand Marshal of the first Pride Parade held in Queens, New York in 1993. President Barack Obama honored the Chalkboard Champion with a Presidential Citizens Medal in 2012.

After nearly three decades in the classroom, Jeanne retired in 1990 at the age of 70. She passed away on January 8, 2013, in Daly City, California at the age of 92.