Frequently Asked Questions: Engendering the Lives, Work, and Careers of “Little Known” Black Women Educators Who Made History

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This panel presentation explores the lives, work and careers of four “little known” black women educators—at least outside of academic circles—who made history: Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987), Ethel Thompson Overby (1892-1977), Merze Tate (1905-1996) and Marion Thompson Wright (1905-1962). Through a telling and re-telling of their biographies, which has presented some methodological challenges for each researcher, panelists argue that simply knowing about their lives, work and careers is not enough; rather, knowing about their lives can tell us a great deal about what academics can do “behind the scenes” or “offstage” to improve educational access and opportunity and to serve the public good. As scholars today work to imagine policies and practices in schools and communities that can bring about social justice in education, these black women theorized educational policies and practices that are just as timely today as when they lived.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Education

Chair

• Linda M. Perkins, Claremont Graduate University

Papers

• Social Transformations: Septima Poinsette Clark’s Pedagogical Practices - Karen Ann Johnson, University of Utah

• For a Colored Woman Who Committed Suicide: Toward a Critical Race Biography of Marion Thompson Wright (1905-1962) - Hilton Kelly, Davidson College

• In Search of Ethel T. Overby: Who Was She? - Adah L. Ward Randolph, Ohio University

• Of the Black Female “Talented Tenth”: The Life and Career of Merze Tate (1905-1996) - Linda M. Perkins, Claremont Graduate University