I believe it started in kindergarten with Ms Rogers who also taught five of my cousins before I reached her class. I was four soon to turn five in November, but she was kind, gentle and patience with the last Nalls girl. We reviewed the Alphabet and numbers, our phone numbers and addresses and me, well I was proud, because the Good Shepherd Head Start program taught me well. Kindergarten instead was a great lesson in social-emotional lessons for me. Sharing toys, taking turns and being around all those big kids was challenging for an only child, but Ms Rogers ensured my growth and demonstrated to me at a very young age that loving and teaching black children were synonymous.
African American women educators have always played a significant role in my life. There was Ms Rogers, Ms Lockhart, Ms Townsend, Ms Smith, Ms Jemison and Mrs Short. By the time I had reached the eighth grade I had six black women teachers. I call that pretty significant. Before I entered high school I was under the tutelage of master teacher Gloria Baker. She was both my tutor and teacher and we attended the same church. In essence she was family. Mrs Baker's teaching reputation preceded her because she was a no nonsense, academically focused, culturally sensitive teacher who did not allow you to make any excuses to fail. And the proof was in the pudding. No matter the level you entered you were sure to make leaps and bounds academically before you entered high school. How did she do it ? Love, honor and respect toward us and we in turn to her. High school brought the teachings of Ms Miller, Ms Price, Ms Sagers, Ms D.Murray to name a few. I remember reflecting once and thought about the fact that all of my math teachers in high school were black women. Imagine seeing brown fingers slide across chalkboards solving mathematical equations. Now that's powerful. Of all my English teachers Mrs. Sagers stood out because she was the queen of English Literature . There we read Native Son, Invisible Man, compilations of essays written by black authors and yes she squeezed in other classics like Beowolf and some Steinbeck. Sagers encouraged us to read and analyze everything. She loved us so she challenged us. By the time I was a senior I had heard all about our beloved Linda Murray, a sociology teacher who had a passion for Black art, culture and history. She was more than a teacher, she was your aunt, the school griot and community leader. We lost Linda Murray this year but the celebration of her life was pure evidence of the impact she had on generations of Chicagoans. In her class we traveled with our imaginations to the mother land and with her support each year the seniors , wrote, directed and starred in their own Senior Play.
Post secondary experiences were even more wonderful. I loved the writings and lectures of Dr. Diane Pinderhughes in Black Political Thought. She was a brilliant thinker and strategist. Dr.Ollie Watts Davis's standard of high performance kept everyone on their toes in Black Music courses. Once I interviewed her and thought how could a classical trained Mezzo Soprano black woman do all that she did and still have time to raise a family with her husband. She was a woman of excellence indeed. And when I went to Dr Merle Bowen,professor of Political Science, as a junior and told her I wanted to learn more about Bantu Education and the implications for teaching it in a post apartheid South Africa, she looked at me long and hard because South Africa was still under apartheid. She probably thought I was interesting and that's putting it lightly. But she agreed to mentor me and prepare me for graduate school and taught me how to professionally present at conferences. And Although Dr. Diane Scott Jones challenged me to tears, I respected her work ethic and learned much from her. I recall her teaching me to edit white papers with a ruler, reading from page one forward and backward; checking for punctuation first, capitalizations and spacing. What a tedious task.
It was not until graduate school did I learn about the significant legacy of black women's commitment to education. In graduate school I met Dr. Linda Perkins's, professor in the Educational Policy Studies department and my entire paradigm on black women in education shifted ...forever. In her introductory course entitled "The History of Women in Education" I learned how black women's contribution predated slavery and continued on for decades through independent and public segregated black schools throughout the United States. I became both fascinated and overwhelmed with the knowledge of their personal and professional lives and how they came to impact the generations to come. I admit I had an affinity for the study of black women educators like Hawkins-Brown, Coppin, Bethune, Cooper and Forten. To me there was so much to learn and glean from these women who saw commitment as a pledge and covenant to uplift themselves and their race through the liberatory nature of learning. They freely gave of their time, resources and lives because they could envision the outcome; a free and educated black populace. I am the product of these women and these educational experiences. During graduate school I often dreamed about these tenacious women hoping to one day follow in their foot steps. Their lives were living testimonies of the importance of commitment for growth and connection to purpose. Commitment provides direction and having direction sharpens your focus. It also takes faith and patience to be committed and this is exactly what I sought as I developed my own pedagogy. I saw this commitment to education as an act of service that could yield solutions to the economic, social and political challenges people faced. The bible clearly tells us to " Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established." which means if we dedicate our life's work to what He has destined for us to do, He will bless our plans and we will find success because we are working in purpose. I am convinced black women educators of the past were working in purpose for we are the fruit of their labor. As an educator and librarian I commit myself to the legacy of my predecessors. Even if I tried I could not let it go. Learning, teaching, thinking, creating, uncovering is my life's calling. Not for the sake of doing but as service to those who embrace the emanicipatory notions of education. How about you? What does commitment mean to you? Where does commitment come from? What and who are you committed to? Who are you willing to serve? What sacrifices have you made when you committed to something? What does it mean to be committed to someone or something? Answering these questions may just lead you down a road to your destiny.
Photo credit: https://www.cgu.edu/people/linda-perkins/