Famous African American Teachers

Introduction: Dr. Charles K. Ross, Director, African-American Studies
The 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.

Martha Euphemia Rosalie Lofton Haynes (1890-1980) was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics in the United States. Her father, Dr. William S. Lofton, was a prominent African-American dentist and financier of Black businesses in Washington, and her mother, Lavinia Day Lofton, was active in the Catholic Church. Euphemia married Harold Appo Haynes, who became principal and deputy superintendant of Washington's colored schools.

Euphemia graduated from M Street High School and Miner Normal High School (a.k.a. the School for Colored Girls) in Washington, D.C. She earned a B.A. in Mathematics from Smith College, a Masters in Education from the University of Chicago, and in 1943, a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Catholic University in Washington. She taught high school for 46 years in the District of Columbia. She was the first African-American woman to be chair of the D.C. School Board. Her other teaching positions included first grade, English, and college mathematics. Euphemia established the math department at Miners Teacher's College. She chaired the Division of Mathematics and Business Education at the District of Columbia Teacher's College. She also taught part-time at Howard University. After her retirement in 1959, she was head of Washington's Board of Education. She was active in many community and religious organizations.

Dr. Euphemia Lofton-Haynes played a central role in the integration of the Washington D.C. schools, providing access to quality teachers and facilities for the African-American community. She paved the way for other African-American students to pursue higher education and served them as a mentor and role model. She was a leader in the notion of inquiry-based learning, one that educators are still working to implement today. The following excerpt was taken from a presentation at her 55th Smith College reunion in 1969:

...Both the parent and the teachers must become the companion to the youth in his search for an understanding of his world and of his place in it - indeed an understanding of self...it is our responsibility to provide for him the opportunity to express his thinking, to act with freedom and to face danger. Only in this way can he establish for himself a self-image, which commands not only his respect but the respect of his peers. He and his parent...and his teacher must become companions in learning...

References:

http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2512/Euphemia_Haynes_pioneered_education_and_mathematics accessed February 16, 2008.

http://aumtp656f07.wikispaces.com/Martha+Euphemia+Lofton-Haynes accessed February 16, 2008.

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/haynes.euphemia.lofton.html accessed February 16, 2008.

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
Hallie Quinn Brown
Father Patrick Francis Healy
Charlotte Forten Grimke
Harper Councill Trenholm
Mary Church Terrell
Alexander Twilight
John Hope