EDUCATION // Events
Shop Talk with Black Male Educators
Dianna Donahue-Holley - 05.20.2024
According to the Little Rock School District’s Black Male Educator Summit welcome letter by Superintendent Dr. Jermall Wright, Black male educators comprise 1.3% of teachers nationwide. As I looked at several social media posts about the summit, I began to reflect on my Black male teachers/educators in grade school, thinking maybe I was fortunate not to notice such a deficit of Black male educators growing up since I had at least one at each level.
My most memorable Black male teachers were Coach “Bo” Felder, Mr. Cromedy, Coach Poole, Coach Donald Richardson, and Dr. Dexter Booth, who was my [the best] Assistant Principal. And then there are those I didn’t have as teachers but regarded just as significant, including Mr. Michael Tidwell and Coach Al Flanigan...all some really good guys.
Despite the scarcity, the impact of Black male educators is profound and enduring. It is a disheartening reality that many students may never have the opportunity to experience the transformative influence of a good Black male educator, or to participate in events like the summit where their voices can be heard. LRSD has taken a commendable step towards addressing this issue.
The Little Rock School District hosted its inaugural Black Male Educator Summit, a pivotal event designed to spark a movement that encourages others to step up, create, and lead initiatives across the City of Little Rock and LRSD. The aim is to foster development and improve outcomes for Black male educators and students, a cause that should resonate with all of us.
The summit theme was “Shop Talk: Building Community Through Cutting Edge Conversations,” focusing on discussing the significance of Black male educators driving student achievement while attending to the holistic needs of EVERY child. Strategy sessions were conducted to explore actionable tasks to foster environments where every student and educator feels seen, heard, and valued. Some of the cutting-edge conversations and topics of the summit included:
Noted community leaders, professionals, local and national educators, government officials, and clergy participated as panelists, session presenters, speakers, and moderators, including:
Former NFL player, classroom teacher, award-winning author, and motivational speaker Robert Jackson was the keynote speaker, as well as a session presenter. Leifel Jackson, mentor, nonviolence advocate, and founder of Reaching Our Children and Neighborhoods (R.O.C.A.N.), a non-profit organization, shared his insight and experience with gang affiliation and redemption. Vinson “VJ” Joiner, co-owner of the Legendary Institute Barber College in Little Rock, is a staple image of the summit's promotion campaign, which includes him enthusiastically sharing a book with a young male preparing to get a haircut.
The summit offered the ideal opportunity to begin a tradition of recognizing Black male educators in the Little Rock School District for their dedication to students and the profession. Three educators were awarded the LRSD Black Male Educator Lifetime Achievement Awards:
This was truly a necessary educational experience for the community, educators, parents, shareholders, and current and future students of the Little Rock School District. Those in attendance were charged with the responsibility of using the information to make a difference in their respective communities.
This groundbreaking summit served as a crucial platform for educators and the Little Rock community at large to address the critical need for representation and excellence in our classrooms. For more information about the summit or how to continue the movement, contact the Little Rock School District at (501) 447-2803.
My most memorable Black male teachers were Coach “Bo” Felder, Mr. Cromedy, Coach Poole, Coach Donald Richardson, and Dr. Dexter Booth, who was my [the best] Assistant Principal. And then there are those I didn’t have as teachers but regarded just as significant, including Mr. Michael Tidwell and Coach Al Flanigan...all some really good guys.
Despite the scarcity, the impact of Black male educators is profound and enduring. It is a disheartening reality that many students may never have the opportunity to experience the transformative influence of a good Black male educator, or to participate in events like the summit where their voices can be heard. LRSD has taken a commendable step towards addressing this issue.
The Little Rock School District hosted its inaugural Black Male Educator Summit, a pivotal event designed to spark a movement that encourages others to step up, create, and lead initiatives across the City of Little Rock and LRSD. The aim is to foster development and improve outcomes for Black male educators and students, a cause that should resonate with all of us.
The summit theme was “Shop Talk: Building Community Through Cutting Edge Conversations,” focusing on discussing the significance of Black male educators driving student achievement while attending to the holistic needs of EVERY child. Strategy sessions were conducted to explore actionable tasks to foster environments where every student and educator feels seen, heard, and valued. Some of the cutting-edge conversations and topics of the summit included:
- Mentoring Black Male Students 101
- Black Male Educators as Champions for Literacy
- Current State of Black Males in Education
- Normalizing Mental Health with Black Men & Black Boys
- Effective Strategies to Engage the 'Alleged' Un-Engagable": Connecting the Dots Between Education and Wealth
- In Glow/Out-Flow: Black Men and Wellness
- From Adversity to Achievement: The Blueprint for Successful School Leadership for Black Men
- Black Male Educator Recruitment & Retention: From an HR and Black Male Educator Perspective
- Using Hip-Hop Culture to Engage Today's Youth
- Excellence and EmpowerMENt in Black Male Education Leadership
- "Bangin in the Rock" (1994-2024): What to know about community youth violence and its implications on schooling and Preventing the School-to-Prison Pipeline
- Black Male Educators: The Student Perspective
Noted community leaders, professionals, local and national educators, government officials, and clergy participated as panelists, session presenters, speakers, and moderators, including:
- Dr. Terrence Roberts, member of the historic Little Rock Nine
- Sergeant Willie Davis, Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office
- Willie Brewster, Educational Redesigner & Leadership Coach Moderator
- Tim Campbell, Community Leader & Motivational Speaker
- George Maxey, Principal of Little Rock Southwest High School
- Ayodele Harrison, Founder of Black Male Educators Talk
- Leron McAdoo, LRSD Educator & Little Rock’s first poet laureate
- lan Roberts, Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa
- Dr. Errick Greene, Superintendent of Jackson Public Schools in Mississippi
- Dr. Melvin Brown, Superintendent of Montgomery Public Schools in Alabama
- Telly L. Noel Sr., The Design Group’s COO
- Patrick M. Oliver, Founder & CEO of Say It Loud! Readers and Writers, LLC.
- Lorenzo P. Lewis, Founder/CEO of The Confess Project of America, Atlanta
- Jared Green, Senior Behavioral Specialist of Tendaji CDC
Former NFL player, classroom teacher, award-winning author, and motivational speaker Robert Jackson was the keynote speaker, as well as a session presenter. Leifel Jackson, mentor, nonviolence advocate, and founder of Reaching Our Children and Neighborhoods (R.O.C.A.N.), a non-profit organization, shared his insight and experience with gang affiliation and redemption. Vinson “VJ” Joiner, co-owner of the Legendary Institute Barber College in Little Rock, is a staple image of the summit's promotion campaign, which includes him enthusiastically sharing a book with a young male preparing to get a haircut.
The summit offered the ideal opportunity to begin a tradition of recognizing Black male educators in the Little Rock School District for their dedication to students and the profession. Three educators were awarded the LRSD Black Male Educator Lifetime Achievement Awards:
- Junious Babbs received the L.C. Bates Legacy of Light Award, named after Lucious Christopher “L.C.” Bates – an executive committee member of the Little Rock chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the founder of the Arkansas State Press newspaper, a weekly statewide publication that fought against Jim Crow, and husband to Daisy Lee Gatson Bates.
- Sterling Ingram received the Mifflin Gibbs Trailblazer Award, named after Mifflin Wistar Gibbs – a businessman, politician, and the first elected Black municipal judge in the United States.
- Coach Oliver Elders received the Milton P. Crenchaw Trailblazer Award, named after Milton Pitts Crenchaw – the first of Arkansas and one of the first Blacks in the country to be trained by the federal government as a civilian licensed pilot of the original Tuskegee Airmen.
This was truly a necessary educational experience for the community, educators, parents, shareholders, and current and future students of the Little Rock School District. Those in attendance were charged with the responsibility of using the information to make a difference in their respective communities.
This groundbreaking summit served as a crucial platform for educators and the Little Rock community at large to address the critical need for representation and excellence in our classrooms. For more information about the summit or how to continue the movement, contact the Little Rock School District at (501) 447-2803.
photo source:
content source:
#ReimaginingLRSD #LRSDBMES2024
- Little Rock School District’s Facebook
- LRSD Superintendent Dr. Jermall Wright’s Facebook
- Mayor Frank D. Scott’s Facebook page
content source:
- https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/
- https://www.lrsd.org/page/black-male-educator-summit-2024
#ReimaginingLRSD #LRSDBMES2024
