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.
After four years of teaching, he moved with his wife back to California where he accepted a position in Los Angeles High School and began working on a master's degree at the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Knox completed both his masters and his doctorate at USC in the History and Philosophy of Education and in the process became the first African- American on the Pacific coast of the United States to receive a doctorate.
Knox accepted a position at Howard University shortly thereafter and was there until 1945. During that period, he was also an adjunct professor at American University and an adjunct lecturer at Yale University. Additionally, he was the Assistant Director for the Office of Vocational Education in Washington.
From 1940 to 1962 Knox was the National Chairman of the Education Division of the NAACP and worked on improving minority education. It was in this era when he worked on the preparation for the Brown vs. the Board of Education case.
In 1955, Dr. Knox was appointed to the President’s White House Conference on Education and about ten years later worked as a consultant for the Peace Corps and the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights. In the latter part of the 1960s, Knox was professor emeritus in graduate education for both UCLA and USC. He continued in this role until his death in 1975.
Outstanding education books published by Dr. Knox included The Decline of Denomination Colleges in the United States (1935), The Minority Group Educational Programs in the United States (1947), Democracy and the District of Columbia Public Schools (1957), Land Grant College Education in the United States (1963), and The History of Nursery School Programs in America (1966).
References:
http://afroamhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=afroamhistory&cdn=education&tm=4&gps=82_102_989_580&f=00&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_O._Knox accessed February 20, 2008.
http://www.answers.com/topic/ellis-o-knox 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
Fanny Jackson Coppin