Have you Heard of Willa Johnson Cofield? This is Why you Should…
Meet Willa Johnson Cofield. More than 50 years ago, she was a teacher at the all-Black high school in Enfield, N.C., instructing her students in literature and grammar by day, leading voter-registration campaigns and petitioning to end segregation in her small town by night.
In April 1963, a group of her students, fired up by their classroom discussions, went to the Whites-only library in town knowing they’d be turned away. They were inspired to start a series of demonstrations to dismantle the status quo and even attended the March on Washington in August of that year.
For Cofield, the activism she engaged in was an expression of her belief in education and social justice. She felt they were intertwined. Her employer, however, did not. She was fired.But the values she espoused lived on long after she left North Carolina and settled in New Jersey. Cofield at age 87 continues to talk to audiences of students and teachers about voting rights and advocating for laws that will make it easier – not more difficult – to vote. (You can take a stand on this issue by emailing your elected officials to support the Voting Rights Enhancement Act.)
Black History Month is often when we tell the familiar stories of struggle and triumph: the heroism of Rosa Parks, the vision of Martin Luther King, Jr., the boldness of Malcolm X. These activists and leaders were instrumental in our nation’s progress, and they must never be forgotten. But there are so many stories of educators who were activists. Their names may not be as familiar, but their impact was just as great. And it’s up to us to share those narratives throughout the year.
Did you know the very first institutions created by the newly freed slaves were schools? The former slaves had little money, they didn’t have strategic plans, and they couldn’t call on people with influence and resources for assistance or advice. Yet they somehow got these schools up and running only a year or two after slavery.
“They pooled their resources – which were very meager – to hire a teacher, to find a building, to build a building, to use an abandoned building, to create a school,” says historian Eric Foner. “And at these schools, everybody is going… .This is one of the critical definitions of freedom for black people: the ability to get an education.”
The freed slaves wanted for their sons and daughters what they would never have themselves. These mothers and fathers believed all children – including the children of those who had been in bondage, who were considered less than full citizens and denied full participation in society – deserved the opportunity to learn. And they were determined to provide it. Consider the founding of Talladega College in Alabama. A small group of slaves gathered Have you Heard of Willa Johnson Cofield? This is Why you Should... - Lily's Blackboard: