Trailblazers in Black History: Marva Collins

 

The following is an excerpt from a 2015 news article entitled Chicago Educational Leaders Remember Marva Collins, which was written by La Risa Lynch. 

"CHICAGO - Few names stand out more when it comes to educating Black children than Marva Collins. She was among the greats, said Phillip Jackson, executive director of the BlackStar Project, which provides educational service for low-income Black and Latino youths.

"Her name is synonymous with educator and Civil Rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, Asa Hilliard, the father of African-centered education, Hannibal Afrik, who led the community control movement through his organization, the Black Teachers Association, and Barbara Sizemore, the first Black woman elected as superintendent of the District of Columbia Public School System.

'She is one of the first people that I know who took the education of Black children into the hands of Black people,” said Mr. Jackson, an education advocate. “She represented … that Black people can successfully educate Black children.'

"Ms. Collins, a 2004 National Humanities Medal awardee, died June 24 in a hospice care near her home in South Carolina. She was 78.

"Ms. Collins became a trailblazer in education after seeing the disparity between the private education her children received and that of students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system where she taught 14 years as a substitute teacher. So Ms. Collins in 1975 opened her own private school on the second floor of her apartment building in Chicago’s West Garfield Park community."

Source: The Final Call