Classrooms at the Intersection: On Black History Month and Building a Better World

I am proud to be the mother of four African-American and Latino boys. I wish it were a given that their history is as much a part of America’s as anyone else’s. But still today, it’s not.

When a picture book featuring happy slaves is up for a Caldecott Medal—and when the slave trade itself is described as the “immigration” of millions of “workers” in high school textbooks—it’s clear that sometimes, our nation needs a special call to action.

At Teach For America, we believe a great education is more than academics—our students need to feel affirmed, respected, and empowered. And we need classrooms where children engage with the hard parts of history, because ignoring it or pretending it did not happen won’t make it go away. Our students aren’t strangers to injustice, so it’s our job to help them process it, question it, and lead the way to change.

The work of educators is at the intersection of so many social issues. Teachers know firsthand that healthcare matters, housing matters, and race matters; their students are living that reality. When the children of Flint are drinking poisoned water from school fountains—when our students in Baltimore are sent home from school and greeted with National Guardsmen in riot gear—when black boys and girls are being suspended from pre-K at an astonishing rate—it’s clear that our schools need to address the history and present state of injustice.

There’s a role for everyone in this movement for change; everyone can play a part in the fight for educational equity and excellence. We need grounded, thoughtful and unrelenting leaders working for students in so many parts of the system. We need dedicated people like the doctors and nurses treating the children of Flint, the community organizers who helped students raise their voices in Baltimore, and the policy makers, researchers, and educators who are addressing the school-to-prison pipeline that starts with those Pre-K suspensions.

At Teach For America, our alumni are a part of these efforts—they make a powerful difference in the classroom, but many decide to fight the injustice they encountered there in other ways. These leaders are diverse—and they are 50,000 strong, working alongside our many partners in this work.

Those partners include organizations like Alpha Phi Alpha and the United Negro College Fund. They include Dr. Beverly Tatum, who serves on our board of directors and is a guiding light for this organization. They include Dr. David Johns, who leads the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, and Dr. Andre Perry, the scholar, education advocate, and Founding Dean of Urban Education at Davenport University.

We stand proudly alongside partners like these and so many more, within and outside of the African American community. When my four sons look at the organization I lead, I’m glad they see people that look like them and people that look different. I’m glad they see the powerful, collective force we’ve become—including a corps that’s 21% African-American and 14% Latino.

As Black History Month comes to a close, I want my sons to see the teachers and leaders who are working for a better world and joining hands with the many others fighting for justice. I want them to see models of the change-makers I know they will be.