<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 2in 18.75pt 0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Greetings all!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 2in 18.75pt 0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">February is National Black History Month as
proclaimed by President Biden:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 2in 18.75pt 0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:rgb(10,36,88)">NOW,
THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America,
by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim February 2023 as National Black History
Month. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the
people of the United States to observe this month with relevant programs,
ceremonies, and activities.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:rgb(10,36,88)">Three
Black Ladies of Literacy for National Literacy Month</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:rgb(10,36,88)"> About a decade and a half ago, in 2009, I published a book chapter </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">in a Reading Hall of Fame initiated book in which I discussed the contributions
of historically important persons who have contributed to the education for
literacy development of adults in the United States. Included among these
pioneers were brief stories about three Black women who had devoted their lives
to the improvement of the literacy and lives of African-Americans from the
early days of slavery in the United States through the initiation of the
liberating Civil Rights laws of the early 1960s during the Presidencies of
Kennedy and Johnson. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">About a decade
later, in 2020, as a member of the Reading hall of Fame, I
nominated the three pioneer Black women discussed in Sticht (2009) for posthumous inclusion in the international
Reading Hall of Fame: </span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Harriet A. Jacobs (1813-1897),
Susie King Taylor (1848-1912), and Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) and they
were all three inducted into the RHOF in 2020. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">A
Resource for Black History Month February 2023
</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Drawing on the foregoing and other resources,
Pamela Cote (2020), of the Barbara Bush Foundation For Family Literacy, has produced a study guide entitled <b>Three Black Ladies of Literacy-Unit of
Study. </b></span> Commenting on the work
of these three Black ladies of literacy Cote’s study guide states: “<span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">All three contributed to the quest
of literacy for African Americans, specifically in the area of adult literacy. </span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,"sans-serif"">‣</span><span style="font-family:"MCOBUF+LucidaGrande","sans-serif""> </span><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in
1813. In her autobiography, </span><i><span style="font-family:"GHHKR W+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl, </span></i><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">she details life in slavery and her
daring escape. Having been taught to read by her owner’s daughter, one story
she shares is of helping another older slave learn to read. Once she obtained
her freedom, she taught former slaves to read and write at Freedmen’s
Schools….. </span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,"sans-serif"">‣</span><span style="font-family:"MCOBUF+LucidaGrande","sans-serif""> </span><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Susie King Taylor was born a slave
in Georgia in 1848. She was taught to read and write by a freed woman, going to
school each day “with our books wrapped in paper to prevent the police or white
persons from seeing them.” (King, 1902, p.5). She was the first African
American teacher in Georgia and taught children and adults at a Freedmen’s
school. …Lastly, born in 1898 in South Carolina, Septima Poinsette Clark was a
teacher and Civil Rights activist. Known as an innovative teacher, she used
“real world” materials in her teaching and tied her teaching to voting rights.
She helped start Citizenship Schools for Black adults and led the Voter
Registration Project from 1962-1966. She retired in 1970, after having an
enormous impact on voter registration in the south—over a million African
Americans had registered to vote. In 1979, she received the Living Legacy Award
from President Jimmy Carter.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Cote’s study guide presents more information about each
of these women and offers detailed learning objectives, noting that these
objectives are provided for working with adult learners but that they may be
modified for learners of different ages. The study guide is a valuable resource
for use during National Black History Month and is available online at <a href="https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/BBF_3BW-Plan-1.pdf" style="color:blue">https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/BBF_3BW-Plan-1.pdf</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">References</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Reading Hall of
Fame (2020) <a href="https://www.readinghalloffame.org/">https://www.readinghalloffame.org/</a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sticht, T.
(2009). The Lamplighters: pioneers of adult literacy education in the United
States. In: Y. Goodman & J. Hoffman (Eds.), Changing literacies for
changing times: an historical perspective on the future of reading research,
public policy, & classroom practices (pp. 108-123). Routledge. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Note: Also see Cote. P. (2021) Equity in literacy:
Highlighting three black women of literacy COABE Journal. Reference online at: .
.</span> <span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif""><a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/5360fa00d3e7b2a99edb673a4a1e6d55/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2042767">https://www.proquest.com/openview/5360fa00d3e7b2a99edb673a4a1e6d55/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2042767</a></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 18.75pt;line-height:21.1pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">An additional resource for this month is available
online at <a href="http://www.oerinadulted.org/stichtarticles.htm" style="color:blue">http://www.oerinadulted.org/stichtarticles.htm</a></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-family:"SCLVV F+ Montserrat","sans-serif"">Scroll down to find: </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana,"sans-serif";color:black">2/7/2017 </span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;line-height:115%;color:black">February is Black History Month: Ambrose Caliver and
Freedom’s People</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt;line-height:115%;color:black">Tom Sticht</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana,"sans-serif";color:black"></span></p></div>