American Educator, Activist, and Advocate: Eleanor Rebecca Powell Archer [Hardcover]

Framed by Black feminist thought, Critical Race Theory, and historical context,American Educator, Activist, and Advocate: Eleanor Rebecca Powell Archerby Kay Ann Taylor examines Eleanors rich life through her career as a teacher at Sumner High School in Kansas City and as one of the first Black public school teachers in Des Moines, Iowa. After studying for a textiles profession and attending her first Delta Sigma Theta convention in 1938, Eleanor realized she needed to pursue teaching due to constraints of race and gender. The obstacles Eleanor faced inform her story through her self-determination, resilience, and activism. This in-depth research into Eleanors life provides insight for academics to acknowledge the lives and ideas of women facing segregation, racism, and sexism over time, thereby clarifying Black womens standpoint. This book answers the call for more biographies to be written about Black women and illustrates that ordinary people can be extraordinary.Kay Ann Tayloris associate professor of historical, philosophical, and comparative studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Kansas State University.

This brave book, which tells the story of a Black female educator through multiple philosophical lenses of oppression and liberation, comes at a time when Critical Race Theory (CRT) is being maligned by ultra conservative politicians who have purposely misrepresented the basic tenets of CRT and the importance of its inclusion in the education of Americans on the continued central role of race in U.S. society. It also comes at a time when these same politicians are redefining what it means to be Woke and the history of oppression in U.S. society. Therefore, any mention of theories or even themes supported by Black Feminist Thought and other emancipatory analyses, as outlined by Taylor, have become grounds for firing superintendents and teachers and the erasure from school libraries of any historical accounts, such as thls