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.

Mary Smith Peake (1823-1862) was a freeborn black woman. Her father was an Englishman and her mother an African American. She was sent to school in Alexandria, Virginia when she was six, but had to leave when a new law was passed that banned the education of non-whites. At 16, she returned home to Norfolk, Virginia and began secretly teaching slaves.

In 1861 she was asked to teach at the Grand Contraband Camp, an asylum for escaped slaves near the Union camp of Fort Monroe. Mary was a popular teacher. She taught more than 50 children by day and 20 adults by night under the shade of the Emancipation Oak on the campus of what would later become Hampton University.

Mary was described by a poet as follows: “And as a bird each fond endearment tries, To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, She tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way” (Lockwood, as cited by Wikimedia, 2007). Mary Smith Peake was dedicated to providing educational and cultural experiences that were previously unavailable to non-whites. Her school served as a model for others built to educate African Americans. Today, the Mary Peake Center of Hampton Public Schools stands in her memory.

References:

Hampton City Schools. (2002). Who was Mary Peake, the Person? Found online at http://mpc.sbo.hampton.k12.va.us/biopeake.html.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2007). The American negro: His history and literature. Found online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Peake.

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