Famous African American Teachers
Introduction: Dr. Charles K. Ross, Director, African-American StudiesThe University of Mississippi
Africans, delivered to America during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, brought with them a commitment to education. This desire for learning caused them to be placed in the difficult position of forcibly learning English but not legally being taught how to read and write. Although caught in this paradox, African Americans such as Jupiter Hammon, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Mary Jane Patterson, and Booker T. Washington all had significant educational accomplishments.
Several African Americans received degrees from white institutions of higher learning during the 19th century and historically black colleges were formed beginning in 1837 with the establishment of Cheyney State Training School in Pennsylvania.
With the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, African Americans in the South found themselves retrenched to land as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, legally stripped of the right to vote, and socially segregated. Against this backdrop, education became the leading tool in the fight for equal rights politically, economically and socially. The individuals featured during Black History Month by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning represent and epitomize some of the many accomplishments, contributions, and achievements by African American teachers.
Hallie Quinn Brown (1849-1949) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of former slaves. She graduated from the Chautauqua Lecture School in Ontario, Canada in 1866. In 1870, her family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio, where Hallie and her brother could attend Wilberforce College. Hallie graduated in 1873 and moved to Mississippi to teach in freedman’s schools.
In 1875, Hallie moved to Columbia, South Carolina to work first as a public school teacher and later, a professor at Allen University. After teaching for 10 years at Allen, she served as its Dean for two. Hallie also served as Dean of Women at Tuskegee Institute for a year before moving to Dayton, Ohio to teach public school again. She would later return to Wilberforce University to serve as a professor of elocution and a trustee.
Hallie Quinn Brown was a great public speaker and a passionate advocate of education. She joined the Lyceum in 1874, a group that toured the world to provide entertainment and education. In 1882 she joined the Wilberforce Concert Company, singers that toured to raise money for Wilberforce College. Hallie’s travels took her throughout America and Europe and earned her a reputation of being a great speaker. She was a social activist in the women’s suffrage campaign as well. Hallie organized the Colored Women’s League in Washington, DC, which later became the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). She served as president of the NACW and during her last year, spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hallie Quinn Brown was also an accomplished author. Her seven books include Bits and Odds: A Choice Selection of Recitations (1880) and First Lessons in Public Speaking (1920). Her most popular book, Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction (1926), profiled important African American women of her time. She died in Wilberforce, Ohio in 1949.
References:
Strom, C. (2000). Brown, Hallie Quinn: American National Biography Online accessed on February 8, 2008 at http://www.anb.org/articles/09/09-00121.html.
Rosser, J. J. (2003). Profiles of Ohio Women 1803-2003. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Archives: Teachers featured earlier this month
John Robert Edward Lee
Sarah Mapps Douglass
Mordecai Wyatt Johnson
Mary Smith Peake
Peter Humphries Clark
Mary McLeod Bethune
William Leo Hansberry
Inez Beverly Prosser
W.E.B. DuBois