“You Gotta Keep On, Keeping On”: Harlem’s Fight for Black Minds

• In Event: If Black Women Were Free: The Politics and Pedagogy of Black Power from the U.S. to the U.K.

Abstract

While education historians have written extensively about the New York City teachers’ strike of 1968, which stemmed from a clash between parents and community activists and the United Federation of Teachers in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville demonstration school district, relatively few have considered the efforts of Black women to improve the educational lives of their children. Moreover, little has been written about Babette Edwards, Harlem’s "othermother." This post is an ode to Edwards, an education activist and noted pioneer in the movement for community control. In a letter of recommendation dated March 13, 1975, Preston Wilcox found Edwards' dedication to the children of Harlem to be “persistent, consistent, and insistent.” I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Babette Edwards after reviewing her archives, which are permanently housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (a division of the New York Public Library), and I echo Wilcox’s findings. Edwards’ belief in the potential of Harlem and its children remains steadfast. She refuses to let Harlem’s children be "miseducated." During our conversation Edwards shared that her lifelong mission is to ‘encourage and promote educational excellence’ in Harlem’s schools.

Edwards’ "motherwork" began after the Brown decision when she lived in the Robert F. Wagner Houses in East Harlem and her downtrodden neighbor came to her for help. The neighbor’s son attended a local elementary school and reported that his teachers did not use textbooks in their instruction. This concerned the young mother and when she met with the school’s principal to voice her concerns he was disrespectful and condescending. The very next day Edwards returned to the school with the parent and demanded that the principal show her the books employed by the school’s teachers. Angered by his smug response, Edwards began having “living room meetings” with neighborhood parents where she informed them of their rights regarding their children’s schooling. Edwards’ advocacy for Harlem’s parents, children, and schools embody what scholar Patricia Hill Collins has called "motherwork." This term is used to describe the efficacy of the Black mother.

Using Babette Edwards’ archive at the Schomburg, along with oral history with Edwards, this presenter looks at her other-mothering work as a framework to explore the foundational educational work of Black women in the radical roots of the Black Power era.

Author

• Terri N. Watson, City College of New York - CUNY