Unearthing and Bequeathing Black Feminist Legacies of Brown to a New Generation of Women and Girls

• Published in: The Journal of Negro education 2016, Vol.85 (3), p.199-211
• Main Authors: Christensen, Lois McFadyen, Kelly, Hilton
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 21st century; Access to Education; Activism; African American culture; African American Students; African American Teachers; African Americans; Black people; Black Power movement; Childhood; Clark, Mamie (1917-1983); Court Litigation; Desegregation Litigation; Educational Quality; Educational Research; Females; Feminism; Gainer, Ruby Jackson; Girls; Higher education; Labor unions; Legacies; Marginality; Public schools; Qualitative research; Race; Race relations; Racial Bias; Racial identity; Racism; Researchers; School boards; School Desegregation; School segregation; Sexism; Social Science Research; Social sciences; Society; Supreme Court decisions; Teacher Competencies; Teacher organizations; Teacher Salaries; Teachers; Wages & salaries; Women; Women Faculty; Womens Education; Wright, Marion Thompson; Young Children
• ISSN: 0022-2984; 2167-6437
• DOI: 10.7709/jnegroeducation.85.3.0199

This article highlights the overshadowed contributions that Marion Thompson Wright, Ruby Jackson Gainer, and Mamie Phipps Clark made to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Arguably, Brown would not have materialized without their legal and scholarly activism. Yet their legacies were eclipsed by legendary race men with whom their private and public lives were intertwined. As race women in their own right, they have bequeathed implicitly to successive generations of Black women and girls: more equitable teacher salaries and representation in national teachers associations; greater access to quality early childhood through higher education; a brilliant scholarly foundation of Black educational research; and cautionary lessons about the perennial burden Black women educators shoulder to circumvent their marginalization and invisibility.