Chapter 11: I Dared to Proclaim: The Influence of African American Women Teachers

In my high school yearbook, next to that unrecognizable picture of me trying to look like Diana Ross of the Supremes, I stated that I would one day be a college professor. In retrospect, I can’t believe that an African American sixteen-year-old living in the segregated South in the 1950s and ‘60s dared to proclaim such an illustrious career goal. Moreover, my parents were not college educated, and my Father did not receive his GED until I was in the ninth grade. I had never had a conversation with an African American female (or male) professor or, as a matter of fact, never been in the same room with one.