Teachers of Color Summit Fires Up Attendees

It got hot up in there at that conference center in Norfolk. Dr. Bettina L. Love, professor at Teachers College of Columbia University, and the bestselling author of We Want to Do More Than Survive brought the heat in a stirring keynote address that was both a call for justice and a call for action.

“We’ve been fighting for 70 years, since the Brown decision, to tell this country that our babies are worth it,” she said. “If we don’t educate our Black students about who they are, they won’t know!”

She decried the burdens placed on Black children in our schools. “Think of what our children must sacrifice when the curriculum and the teachers don’t look like them,” she said. “They’re sacrificing themselves! And it’s not just our loss—it’s your loss and it’s democracy’s loss.”

Dr. Love went on to give some marching orders. “We must make our approach with love,” she said adding that Black educators must push for more than being included: “We must become integral,” she said, “and show them that they can’t run this ship without us!”

Conference organizers made sure that student voices were also part of the program, and high school senior Rodney Pierson, who noted that he’s only had four Black teachers in his 13 years of schooling, told attendees, “A lack of Black teachers can…put Black youth in a rough situation by limiting positive role models, limiting career insight, and