[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Black History Month

Tue Feb 6 20:49:29 GMT 2018

Thanks, Tom. Your comments are inspiring, as always.

Judith

Judith A. Langer
Vincent O’Leary Distinguished Research Professor
Director, Center on English Learning & Achievement
School of Education, University at Albany
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
jlanger at albany.edu<mailto:jlanger at albany.edu>

From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Thomas Sticht
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2018 2:56 PM
To: Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Black History Month

2/5/2018

Black History Month: Celebrating African-Americans in Adult Literacy Education

Tom Sticht                                                                                                                              International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)

February is Black History Month in which we celebrate African-Americans who have made America a better place to live for all its people. Among these are several African-Americans who served their nation by lighting the torch of literacy for African-Americans in times of war…both wars against America’s external enemies, and wars against illiteracy, poverty, and oppression  within America.

This year adult educators can learn more about several key African-American educators who helped fight these wars at the web site for the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE): https://www.coabe.org/adult-education-history/

At this site you will find an e-book entitled “The Struggle for Adult Literacy Education in America: A Trilogy Of Notes on History, Research, Policy, & Practice in Adult Literacy Education<https://www.coabe.org/s/Bk-Trilogy1.pdf>.” The report discusses several African-Americans who struggled to bring literacy to slaves and former slaves.  Here is a sample of the discussions for these adult literacy educators:

1.      Susie King Taylor (1848-1912).

During the Civil War, one of the people engaged in teaching soldiers who were former slaves to read and write was Susie King Taylor, herself a former slave. As a freed woman traveling with the 33rd Colored Regiment in the Civil War Taylor reported that “I taught a great many of the comrades in Company E to read and write when they were off duty, nearly all were anxious to learn. I was very happy to know my efforts were successful in camp also very grateful for the appreciation of my services. I gave my services willingly for four years and three months without receiving a dollar.”

2.      Harriet A. Jacobs (1813-1897).

One of the earliest accounts of teaching an adult to read comes from the work of the slave Harriet A. Jacobs. In 1861, after she became a free woman, Jacobs wrote a book entitled, “Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself.”  In it she tells the story of how she helped an older black man, a slave like her, learn to read. Later in her life, after achieving her freedom, Jacobs taught school for former slaves in what were called the Freedmen’s Schools. These schools were set up after the Civil War when the U. S. Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands as the primary agency for reconstruction

3.      Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987).

Septima Poinsette Clark, whom some called “the Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” of the 1960s, worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and other civil rights groups from 1962 to 1966, She lead the Voter Registration Project that prepared 10,000 teachers for citizenship schools where they taught adult literacy for African-Americans within the functional context of voter registration. By the time Clark retired from her SCLC work in 1970 over a million African-Americans had registered to vote in the south.

4.      Ambrose Caliver (1894-1962)

Dr. Ambrose Caliver was an African-American who worked to improve black education on a national scale. He devoted much of his professional life to adult literacy. He began his federal work on behalf of African-American education when he was appointed by President Herbert Hoover as Senior Specialist for Negro Education in the United States Office of Education (USOE) He took advantage of the technology of radio to raise awareness of the differences in educational opportunities between Whites and Blacks. Under his direction, a nine-part radio program called “Freedom’s People” was produced and broadcast during 1941-1942. Caliver’s work in the struggle against the Jim Crow laws and his advancement of African American history, literacy, and education was a cornerstone in the foundation on which the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws of the 1960s were constructed.

5.       Shirley Jackson and the Right to Read (R2R) Program

Dr. Shirley Jackson directed the U.S. government’s R2R program within the Office of Education in the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). Following her work on the R2R Jackson went on to direct the National Basic Skills Improvement Program and she served in various leadership positions within the Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights in the Office of Education Research and Improvement. As a member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Jackson contributed to the NCNW mission: “…to lead, develop, and advocate for women of African descent as they support their families and communities.”
In celebration of Black History Month, you can read more about each of the foregoing African-Americans who worked to improve literacy and civil rights for African-Americans and others in the e-book cited above.
tgsticht at gmail.com<mailto:tgsticht at gmail.com>

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