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.

Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837 - 1913) was an African American educator and missionary. Born a slave in Washington DC, her aunt Sarah Orr Clark bought her freedom for $125, which was an enormous sum considering Sarah earned only $6/month. When she was 14, Fanny moved to Rhode Island with another aunt, Elizabeth Orr. To help cover her expenses, Fanny lived with and worked for George H. Calvert, the great grandson of Lord Baltimore, and Mary Stuart, a descendant of Mary, Queen of Scotland. George and Mary loved Fanny was if she was their daughter. Fanny studied French and learned to play the organ at her church.

Fanny graduated from Rhode Island Normal School and enrolled in Oberlin College at Oberlin, Ohio, where she studied mathematics, Greek, English, and French. To help pay for her education, she taught piano to the children of Oberlin’s faculty. She also taught reading and writing to former slaves during the evening.

Fanny’s first paid teaching position was at Oberlin’s Preparatory Department, the first African-American to teach there. In 1865, Fanny accepted a position of principal of the Ladies Department at Philadelphia’s institute for Colored Youth. In 1869, Fanny became principal of the entire Institute, another first for an African-American woman. She stayed at the Institute for 37 years, working to improve the educational and economic status of her students and her people. During her tenure, 668 students graduated from the Institute and no student failed the teacher certification exam.

1881, Fanny Jackson married Bishop Levi Coppin and became involved in his missionary work. On a trip to South Africa in 1902 they founded the Bethel Institute. Fanny wrote many articles promoting the rights of African Americans and women. In Baltimore Maryland a school was dedicated to Fanny, the Fanny Jackson Coppin Normal School, which later became Coppin State College. Fanny’s sense of self-direction and independence is apparent in the following quote

I am always sorry to hear that such and such as person is going to school to be educated. This is a great mistake. If the person is to get the benefit of what we call education, he must educate himself, under the direction of the teacher.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Jackson_Coppin February 20, 2008.

http://www.essortment.com/fannyjacksonco_ozb.htm accessed February 20, 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
Euphemia Lofton-Haynes
Booker T. Washington
Margaret Murray Washington
Robert Russa Moton