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.

Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875-April 3, 1950) was born in New Canton, Virginia, the son of former slaves. His father had helped Union soldiers during the Civil War and moved to West Virginia after the war, where a school for blacks was opening in Huntington. Being poor, Mr. Woodson could only attend school sporadically and was largely self-educated.

It was only while working as a miner that he was able to attend Douglass High School and graduate in 1897. Three years later, he became the principal at Douglass. He eventually received his bachelor’s degree from Berea College in Kentucky. After working about four years as a supervisor in the Philippines, he returned to the United States and began graduate work, receiving his master’s from the University of Chicago in 1908 and his doctorate in history from Harvard University in 1912.

As a historian, Woodson realized that the history and culture of black people were being lost, ignored, and misrepresented. To prohibit that, he helped by co-founding the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. He started The Journal of Negro History in 1916 which was later re-named Journal of African-American History.

Among the things that Woodson is remembered for is as the founder of Black History Month, a celebration that began in 1926 as a one week affair and grew to become the month of February.

His book The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933) continues to be popular. Additionally, he helped form the Associated Publishers, the oldest African American publishing company in the United States.

References:

http://members.aol.com/klove01/cgwodson.htm accessed on February 20, 2008.

http://www.africawithin.com/bios/carter_woodson.htm accessed on February 20, 2008.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/bhm/woodson.shtml accessed on 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
Ellis O. Knox
Anna Julia Cooper
Matthew Gaines
Maria L. Baldwin