Ethel T. Overby: How a Teacher's Life Can Change Policy and Practice

• In Event: 67.045 - Principled Resistance: How Teachers Resolve Ethical Dilemmas

Abstract

Purpose
This paper will examine how black educator Ethel T. Overby created foot soldiers for the modern day Civil Rights Movement. It describes how Overby utilized her classroom as a teacher, her community through organizations such as the Urban League, the YWCA, the Richmond Crusade for Voters and finally, it examined her role as advocate for political change as a principal of Elba and later Norrell schools. This presentation will highlight the resistance philosophy of Ethel T. Overby and how her educational philosophy and social activism fostered democratic change inside and outside of schools in Richmond, Virginia (Ward Randolph & Robinson, 2018).

Theoretical framework
Critical race theory and Black feminist theory formed the theoretical framework for the analysis of the data sources.

Methods
This paper is a historical analysis of primary source documents pertaining to the professional life of Overby.

Evidence
Primary source data included school board minutes, superintendent reports, newspaper articles, and Ethel T. Overby’s Autobiographical Notes.

Substantiated conclusions
Importantly, this paper addresses the social and political context against which she was resisting. For African Americans during this period of American history, teachers and principals actively and openly sought to alter the structural framework of racism, classism and sexism in the South (Anderson, 1888). Unlike the other African American women activists, Overby was crusading against oppression before 1954 (Houck & Dixon, 2009; Loder-Jackson, 2015). We learn from Overby how she did it in her classroom and in her community.

Significance
It is believed that Overby’s life speaks to not just surviving racism but altering its impact on the lives of all Americans. It is hoped this examination of the life of Overby speaks to the significance of teachers and school leaders in fostering change against oppression in American society through educational activism and resistance.

Authors

• Adah L. Ward Randolph, Ohio University

• Dwan V. Robinson, Ohio University