Recovering the Work of African American Women Private School Founders in New York City

• In Event: Black Educators and the Struggle for Educational Justice

Abstract

During the early to mid-twentieth century three African American NYC educators founded private schools to address the educational needs of the city’s black students. These educators, Mildred Johnson, Helen Meade, and Dorothy Bostic sought to provide education in environments that offered students the necessary tools to be successful in life, and that allowed them agency to pursue any career path they chose; rather their race prescribing their career opportunities and trajectories. The three schools were opened, respectively, in Harlem – The Modern School (1934), the Bronx – The Little Brown School House (1939), and Brooklyn – Junior Academy (1948). Each served their student population with teachers who “never entertained the idea that a child cannot learn,” and firmly believing “that each child matters.”

Author

• Deidre B. Flowers, Independent Scholar