The South's Great Generation of Black Teachers

Everybody's stories matter. It's not just a matter of nostalgia, it powers us into the present and the future.-- Barack Obama

I can't say it was the case with all Black teachers of my mother's generation, who had come of age in the South, but I know that many of them saw themselves as on a mission. Education was about the individual students but there was an additional component; an explicit mission of race uplift. . . . Becoming educated was an act of resistance. The classroom was a site of that resistance.

-- Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth (Norton & Co, 2021), 50.

The caption to this photo, which probably appeared in a Selma newspaper early in 1962, reads:

A group of teachers from Shelby County was entertained recently by the Rev. and Mrs. G. C. Massey in their home, 1405 Washington Street. Mrs. Massey worked with the Shelby County school system before her retirement. Dinner was served buffet style to the visitors, pictured above. Shown left to right, are, standing: Miss Mary A. Kelly, Mrs. Hannah C. Harris, Mrs. B. M. Coger, Mrs. Addie T. Lacey, Mrs. M. M. Smitherman, Mrs. Lola M. Alexander, and the Rev. Massey. Seated: Miss Kathleen Boyd, Mrs. Massey, Mrs. Anna M. Nunn, Mrs. Johnnie C. DuBose, Mrs. Beulah Collins, and behind Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Larnetta Smelley and Mrs. O. D. Fluker.

A clipping of the photo and caption, dated Jan 3, 1962 on the back, was contributed by James Salter. Next month's Untold Story, "Called to Teach: The Legacy of Blanche Coger," continues the story of this great generation of teachers.

Submitted by Kathy King and Anitka Stewart Sims. Do you have an untold story you'd like to tell or have told? Contact us at MontevalloLegacy@gmail.com. We want to hear your stories and welcome corrections of fact and interpretation.