Teaching Black Biography as a Political Act

• In Event: Interdisciplinary Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Centering African American Archives, Educators, Students, and Technology

Abstract

Long before culturally responsive pedagogy became a popular concept in education, black women educators in the 1940s conducted research and wrote a children’s book that they hoped would empower black youth and reduce prejudice among white students. Geneva Turner, Jessie Roy, and Elise Derricotte, educators in the D..C public school system, wrote a compilation of 27 biographies of 27 famous African Americans called Word Pictures of the Great. This book was intended as a direct challenge to the omission and distortion of African Americans in children's literature and school curricula. Their struggle against epistemological injustice for the empowerment of marginalized children and transformation of race relations provides an early model for teachers today.

Author

• Ashley D Dennis, Northwestern University