February is Black History Month, a time to honor and celebrate African American history and those who have contributed to it.
We all know the accomplishments of Black heroes and pioneers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, and George Washington Carver, just to name a few.
In the late eighteenth century, there were a few brave people who stood up against racist societal standards and became top-notch educators.
If you’ve wondered who was the first black teacher, this article will shed some light on the history of educators and activists in America.
Susie King Taylor: Teaching in the Face of Adversity
Ever wondered who was the first black teacher in the United States? Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) was the first black teacher to teach openly in a school for former slaves.
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Susie Baker was born into slavery near Savannah, Georgia, on August 6, 1848, and raised on the Valentine Grest Plantation in Midway by her mother and grandmother, who were also enslaved on the plantation, along with Susie’s five younger siblings.
Growing up in slavery, Black children were denied any type of formal education by state law.
However, Susie’s plantation mistress secretly taught her to read. When she eventually moved to Savannah with her grandmother, Susie attended secret underground schools instructed by Black women.
Susie King Taylor was not the first African American teacher (after all, she was taught by freed slaves in secrecy).
Before her time, it was illegal to teach slaves, and Susie attended an illegal school taught by a freed slave named Mrs. Woodhouse. Teachers like Mrs.
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At the age of 14, Susie was freed of slavery when her uncle and his family escaped by boat at Jones River before reaching the Atlantic Ocean, where they were rescued by Union forces and transported to St. Simons Island.
Susie was one of thousands of Black refugees who sought safety behind Union lines.
She soon found herself with the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first Black regiment in the United States Army.
There, she served as a laundress and cook for the regiment, and she was the first Black Army nurse to serve in an all-Black regiment in the Civil War.
But it was her literacy skills that proved most valuable in helping the group of former slaves learn how to read.
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Susie married unit Sgt. Edward King and, after the Civil War ended, moved to Savannah, where she hoped to continue teaching.
However, in 1866 she became the first Black teacher to ever teach students openly and legally-educating students during the day and adults at night. She was also the first federally funded teacher in the state of Georgia.
In 1867, Susie opened her second school, this time in her hometown of Midway.
Susie left her son with her mother, had another educated woman run her school, and headed back to Savannah to open a night school for children and adults.
Tragically, Sgt. King passed away around the same time of Susie’s school opening. This event, along with the opening of a new public school nearby, resulted in the closing of her school.
After finding various types of employment, Susie moved to Boston in 1872.
She married Russell Taylor in 1879 and spent most of the remainder of her life working with the Woman’s Relief Corps, a national organization for female Civil War veterans.
In 1902, Susie published her memoir of the Civil War, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops.
All the while, Susie was an outspoken racial justice activist who pushed back against prejudice and discrimination.
Though Susie King Taylor is remembered as a pioneer in education, her work in racial justice and equality is just as notable.
Fanny Jackson Coppin: A Champion for Women's Education
Fanny Jackson (1837-1913) was the first Black principal in the United States.
Fanny Jackson was born in 1837 in Washington, D.C., and like Susie King Taylor, was born into slavery.
At the age of 12, an aunt bought Fanny into freedom.
By age 14, she was working as a domestic servant in Newport, Rhode Island, determined to seek education wherever she could find it.
“It was in me,” she wrote many years later, “to get an education and to teach my people. This idea was deep in my soul.”
Fanny eventually enrolled in the Rhode Island State Normal School before matriculating at Oberlin College (the first college in America to accept Black and female students) in 1860.
Fanny performed so well at Oberlin that she was the first African American student-teacher at the school.
In 1865, she became one of the first Black women to get a college degree at Oberlin College in Ohio.
While she attended college, she established a school with night classes to teach freed slaves.
Upon graduating from Oberlin College in 1865, Fanny moved to Philadelphia.
There she began teaching Latin, Greek, and mathematics at the Institute for Colored Youth, a Quaker school.
She soon served as the principal of the girls’ high school department.
By 1869 she was appointed head principal at the school. This made Fanny Jackson the first-ever Black principal in the United States.
Only two years after her appointment as principal, Fanny opened a normal-school department.
Fanny’s work emphasized supporting the higher education of young women, expanding the school’s curriculum to include an industrial department, creating a Women’s Industrial Exchange to display mechanical and artistic works of young women, and founding the Home for Girls and Young Women to house workers from outside Philadelphia.
She also encouraged employers to hire her students in positions that would utilize their education.
While serving as principal at the Institute for Colored Youth, she was promoted to superintendent by the board of education.
A few years after becoming the principal at the Institute for Colored Youth, the Philadelphia Board of Education promoted her to the superintendent.
In 1881, Fanny married Reverend Levi J. Coppin, a prominent minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church who became a bishop in 1900.
During this time, Fanny led her school and succeeded in establishing an industrial training department that offered instruction in 10 different trades.
In 1902, Fanny retired from the school she loved so much and accompanied her husband to Cape Town, South Africa, to partake in missionary work counseling African women.
While in Africa, the Institute for Colored Youth relocated to Cheyney, PA, in 1904, before becoming Cheyney State College in 1951.
She returned to Philadelphia in 1907 to write her autobiography, Reminiscences of School Life, and spend her remaining years.
Fanny Jackson Coppin passed away in 1913 at age 76, having left behind a legacy in education and an impression on generations of African American women.
As one final remembrance of Fanny Jackson Coppin and what her accomplishments meant to this country, the High and Training School of Baltimore renamed itself Coppin State University in 1926.
Bessie Bruington Burke: Breaking Barriers in Los Angeles
In 1911, Bessie Bruington Burke made history as the first African American teacher in the Los Angeles, California, public school system.
