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.

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson (January 12, 1890 – September 10, 1976) was born in Paris, Tennessee, the son of the Reverend Wyatt J. Johnson and Carolyn Freeman. After his grammar school education, he enrolled in Nashville's Academy of Roger Williams University in 1903. When the university was destroyed by fire in 1905, Mr. Johnson matriculated at the Howe Institute in Memphis before entering Atlanta Baptist College (now Morehouse College) to complete his high school studies. After graduation he was appointed to the faculty, teaching history, economics, and English and served as acting dean in 1911-1912.

Additionally, he received a second Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Chicago in 1913 and attended the Rochester Theological Seminary from 1913-1916. In 1922 Harvard University presented Mr. Johnson the Master of Science in theology. In 1923 and 1928 respectively, Howard University and Gammon Theological Seminary awarded him honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees.

In 1926 and without a terminal academic degree, Dr. Johnson became the first African-American president of Howard University where he remained for thirty-four years.  During his presidency, the faculty tripled, salaries increased, buildings were constructed, and the school was put on a solid financial footing. A major contribution was the development of the university’s law school from which many of the Civil Rights attorneys and law professors graduated.

References:

http://www.answers.com/topic/mordecai-wyatt-johnson

Logan, R. (1969). Howard University: The First Hundred Years, 1867 – 1967. New York: New York University Press.


Archives: Teachers featured earlier this month
John Robert Edward Lee
Sarah Mapps Douglass