Queen Mother Adelaide Sanford: Sankofa Pedagogy and Black Educational Futures

• In Event: Ancestral Futures: Sankofa, Afrofuturism, and Black Educational Imagination

Abstract

This paper examines the legacy of Queen Mother Dr. Adelaide Sanford, a transformative Black educator whose work exemplifies Sankofa pedagogy and fugitive educational leadership. Through oral histories, archival research, and community-grounded narrative, the study explores how Sanford reclaimed ancestral wisdom to construct liberatory spaces within public schools. Her Afrocentric practices challenged Eurocentric norms and modeled cultural survival, intergenerational care, and resistance. By unforgetting erased histories and centering Black diasporic knowledge, Sanford offered visionary models for contemporary educational justice. Her story is both historical lesson and speculative blueprint—rooted in memory and radical Black futurity.

Author

• Lindamichelle Baron, York College - CUNY