Black educator speaks at Harvard about segregated schools’ accomplishments
Segregated Southern schools accomplished far more than history remembers, according to Vanessa Siddle Walker (Ed.M. ’85, Ed.D. ’88) president-elect of the American Educational Research Association. In her recent book, “The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools,” Walker examines how pre-integration black schools formed a network that laid groundwork for social and cultural advancements. On Thursday, Walker spoke at Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) Askwith Forum about “Black Educators and the Struggle for Justice in Schools,” and revealed that the history challenged her own preconceptions about black education before integration. Her eyes were first opened, she said, when she returned to North Carolina after her Harvard doctorate. “I heard black people saying things like, ‘Too bad they’re getting rid of that building, it was such a great school,’” she said. “And here I was with my fancy doctorate, wondering what these people were...