Educator and teacher Sarah Lee Fleming of Brooklyn, New York. Photo credit: Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library.

There are many accomplished educators in American history who have distinguished themselves as community activists. Sarah Lee Fleming, a school teacher from Brooklyn, New York, is one such educator.

Sarah was born Sarah Lee Brown was born in poverty in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 10, 1875. She was raised in Brooklyn, New York. As a young girl, Sarah dreamed of becoming a school teacher. However, her father discouraged this goal, believing that Sarah could only aspire to be a domestic. Little did he know that one day, Sarah would become the first African American teacher in the Brooklyn public school system.

In 1902, Sarah married Richard Stedman Fleming. After their marriage, the couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where Richard became the first African American dentist to practice in the state. The union produced two children: a daughter named Dorothy born in 1903, and a son named Harold born in 1906.

An associate of Mary McLeod Bethune, Sarah channeled her energy into bettering the educational opportunities for African American women. She organized the New Haven Women’s Civic League in 1929, and in 1936, she established the Phillis Wheatley Home for Girls, a shelter for young Black women who had just moved to New Haven in search of employment. In fact, Sarah’s work was recognized by Congress in 1955, the same year she received the Sojourner Truth Scroll from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club.

In addition to her civic work, Sarah was also a published playwright, novelist, and poet named as part of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Sarah’s most notable published works are her novel Hope’s Highway, published in 1918, and a collection of poems entitled Clouds and Sunshine, published in 1920.

Sarah passed away in January, 1963, five days before her 87th birthday.

Left, elementary school teacher Barbara Henry with her former student, Ruby Bridges. At right, Ruby Bridges attending William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1960.

There are many courageous Chalkboard Champions in American history who have worked diligently to improve social conditions for all their students. One of these was Barbara Henry, an elementary teacher from New Orleans who sought to help integrate Louisiana schools during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. She was the teacher of Ruby Bridges, who was the first African American student to attend an all-white school in her city.

Barbara as born January 1, 1932. As a young girl, she attended Girls’ Latin School in Boston. There, she says, she “learned to appreciate and enjoy our important commonalities, amid our external differences of class, community, or color.”

Barbara inaugurated her career as a teacher overseas in schools for military dependents. Those schools were integrated. When she returned to the United States, the adventurous educator and her husband settled in New Orleans. She accepted a position at William Frantz Elementary School.

In 1960, little Ruby Bridges enrolled in the school. Barbara volunteered to teach Ruby, but the decision prompted white parents to remove their children from the class. For more than a year Barbara taught Ruby as her only student in the classroom.

At first, Ruby was nervous about meeting her new teacher, especially when confronted with loud protests going on outside the school. “I had never seen a white teacher before,” Ruby remembered, “but Mrs. Henry was the nicest teacher I ever had. She tried very hard to keep my mind off what was going on outside. But I couldn’t forget that there were no other kids,” she said.

The intrepid and courageous Barbara Henry: A true Chalkboard Champion. To read Barbara’s story in her own words, see this essay written by her published by Scholastic: In Her Own Words.

Franklin Armstrong was the first Black character to be added to the Peanuts cast of characters. Cartoonist Charles Schultz created Franklin in response to a letter written by Los Angeles teacher Harriet Glickman.

Recently I came across a story about how Franklin Armstrong became the first African American character to be part of the cast of Peanuts characters. I was surprised to learn that the creation of this character was initiated by a Los Angeles school teacher. Her name was Harriet Glickman.

In 1968, just after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet wrote a letter to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. She asked the cartoonist to consider adding a Black character to the cast of the Peanuts comic strip. Harriet was acutely aware of the influence of mass media, and how images could shape the unconscious biases of young children.  “And my feeling at the time was that I realized that Black kids and white kids never saw themselves (depicted) together in the classroom,” Harriet once recalled. “I’ve bee asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, hate, fear, and violence,” she continued. The enterprising teacher suggested that adding a Black character to the cast of Peanuts characters would help bridge the gap between the races. Schultz responded by creating Franklin Armstrong, introducing him to the public in a comic strip published on July 31, 1968.

Teacher Harriet Glickman in 1980. She wrote the letter that prompted Charles Schultz to create the Black character Franklin Armstrong.

The inclusion of the character met with mixed responses. Schultz battled with his own editor about the addition. The debate became so heated that the cartoonist even threatened to quit unless the strips were printed as created. At least one editor of a newspaper in the South insisted that no more images depicting Black and White students together in the classroom be sent to his paper. The editor said they were actively fighting against integration in his city, and the cartoons were counter-productive to that goal.

Harriet was a true Chalkboard Champion. Sadly, she passed away on March 27, 2020, in Sherman Oaks, California. She was 93 years old.

To read more about Harriet, see this online story from the Charles M. Schultz Museum, which includes a delightful 13-minute interview of this teacher activist. You can also read the story printed by The New York Times.