Lessons for today from the overlooked stories of Black teachers during the segregated civil rights era
Retrieved on:
Friday, September 29, 2023
Communication, Education, Face, Jim Crow laws, Rust College, Teaching, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Research, History, Human rights movement, Foundation, Creativity, Congress, School, Book, Student, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, National Council, Child, Brown v. Board of Education, Civil and political rights, Social, NAACP, National Council of Negro Women, Behavior, Tutoring, Toy, Nursing, Ida Clark DePriest, Black
As one of the handful of Black teachers in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era of racially segregated public schools, she faced a daunting challenge in providing a first-class education to students considered second-class citizens.
Key Points:
- As one of the handful of Black teachers in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era of racially segregated public schools, she faced a daunting challenge in providing a first-class education to students considered second-class citizens.
- Before the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board decision that deemed segregated schools “separate and unequal,” the efforts of Black teachers went unheralded, underappreciated and virtually unknown.
- My research revealed at least one important lesson: What Black teachers face today is not that different from what we faced in the past.
In spite of it all
- What I found was that for Black people, education was in and of itself an act of active resistance against racial disenfranchisement.
- As education scholar Christopher Span explained in his 2012 seminal book “From Cottonfield to Schoolhouse”: “To be educated was to be respected; to be educated was to be a citizen.
- As a result, Black teachers used classrooms to not only impart the lessons of history, but also to encourage students to be actively involved in the fight for racial equity.
Education was paramount
- Here are a few that serve as lessons for today: Arguably the most important, the first is developing relationships and mentorships.
- Further solidifying those relationships was the fact that many of the teachers had taught several generations of families.
- Because of their teachers, Black students valued education and modeled their own behavior to achieve their own potential.
- She knew then that education was intended to be the great equalizer in America and the key to upward mobility – and she worked her entire career making sure that became a reality in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.