Honoring 8 Trailblazing Educators This Black History Month

While February is both Black History Month and Black Futures Month, trailblazing Black educators can be honored any time of the year. Inspire your students by showing them that education has been a cornerstone of Black communities for centuries.

Here are eight trailblazing Black educators you should know.

1. Edmund Gordon

Psychologist and Creator of Head Start Program

Edmund Gordon is the federal Head Start program architect and founding director of research. Trained as a psychologist, Gordon is a leading scholar on divergent learning styles. His research has encouraged schools to diversify their teaching methods the wide variety of students they serve.

Gordon was also one of the first educators to focus on closing the opportunity gap. He worked tirelessly on this initiative while chairing the College Board's National Task Force on Minority High Achievement. Gordon has devoted his long career to improving educational opportunities for all students, especially students of color.

Gordon turned 102 years old in 2023.

2. Tequilla Brownie

Director of The New Teacher Project 

In 2022, Dr. Tequilla Brownie became the director of The New Teacher Project, an education nonprofit. The New Teacher Project works to improve local and national student outcomes and disrupt educational inequities.  Dr. Brownie speaks passionately and from personal experience about how education can act as an interrupter of generational poverty.

“Education helps students shift the trajectory of their lives,” says Brownie. “We’ll know we’re successful when every student has good choices for their future.”

About her work training teachers, Brownie says,” You know that magical moment when a teacher steps in front of their students? That’s what we want to impact.”

3. Charles H. Houston 

Lawyer, Professor, and Civil Rights Activist 

Charles H. Houston (1895-1950) was a lawyer and professor who argued cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. He helped craft a legal strategy for Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools.

Houston served as Dean of Howard University Law School in the 1930s, and helped shape the institution. Under his tenure, Howard University trained about 25 percent of the nation’s Black lawyers during that era.

Houston’s most famous student, Thurgood Marshall, went on to found and direct the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Marshall became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice in history.

4. bell hooks

Professor, Author, and Cultural Critic  

bell hooks (1952-2021) was an author, professor, and social activist. She published around 40 books, ranging from memoirs to scholarly essays, poetry to children's books.

Her book Teaching to Transgress advises educators to support students in being their authentic selves, which is especially important. “The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility,” writes hooks, because “education is about the practice of freedom.”

Hooks’ insights on committed and compassionate pedagogy have shaped generations of educators. Many teachers can cite their “bell hooks moment,” that instant when they underwent a shift in their understanding of the work they do.

5. Greg Carr

Professor and Curriculum Designer 

Greg Carr teaches at Howard University and co-founded the Philadelphia Freedom Schools, an independent community education initiative emphasizing social activism and intergenerational leadership.

Carr also led a team that designed the curricular framework for the Philadelphia school district’s high school African American History course. The student-centered curriculum encourages students to learn their family history as a way of better understanding themselves. From there, it focuses on past and present Black contributions to the arts, science and technology, and philosophy.

Carr also hosts several successful video series, including In Class with Carr and The Black Table.

  6. Kimberlé Crenshaw

Civil Rights Advocate and Legal Scholar 

Remember when you first learned about intersectionality? You can thank Kimberlé Crenshaw for that.

Crenshaw is a civil rights advocate and professor of law, but is best known for developing intersectional theory. Intersectional theory is the study of how overlapping or intersecting identities interact with each other and shape how a person experiences oppression.

Crenshaw’s theories can help students embrace their complex identities and celebrate who they really are.

7. Sharif El-Mekki

Founder of the Center for Black Educator Development 

Sharif El-Mekki is a former teacher, principal, and the founder of the Center for Black Educator Development. The Center ensures fairness in hiring educators who have the same cultural backgrounds as the students they teach.

He started The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice, a group that helps Black male teachers grow and succeed.

When asked how individual educators can support equity efforts, El-Mekki said: "Every educator of Black children [must] hold themselves accountable for their students' learning, and…[fight] the systemic racism that challenges their every step. While there are many ways to fight racism, a thorough education is a must." 

8. Marva Collins 

Teacher and Educational Reformer  

Marva Collins taught in Chicago for 14 years, then left to start her own school at home in 1975. Collins felt that Chicago schools were mislabeling black children as mentally disabled and encouraging them to act out in harmful ways.

Through Collins’ innovative approach, her Westside Preparatory School flourished. The school won accolades for turning children considered “unteachable” into successful students

By the 1990s, she was mentoring 1,000 teachers each year. She taught them how to use classic literature with students to teach critical thinking skills and cultivate a love of learning. Her school received over 6,000 visitors a year. Most of the visitors were educators eager to learn from her methods.

How Are You Shaping Education?

As we celebrate these trailblazing Black educators, consider how you might carry on their legacy of inclusive excellence. How are we best serving students of all backgrounds, and how can we ensure a bold future for all?