Toward “a Better Racial Understanding”: DC Public School Teachers and Black Historical Biographies for Children, 1941–51

Amid school segregation, overcrowding, and racist curricula in city schools, three Black women D.C. public school educators wrote biographies of famous African Americans for children. Geneva Turner, Jessie Roy, and Elise Derricotte wrote Word Pictures of the Great in 1941. Turner and Roy collaborated again to write Pioneers of the Great in 1951. The educators decided on the biographical genre for their books because they believed that biographies could instill confidence, pride, and motivation to excel. They also believed that biographies were integral to the field of history and were most engaging to children when told as stories. Their books offered creative interpretations of historic events based on scholarly research.

This paper highlights the political objectives of their children’s books and the educators’ engagement in scholarly debates about racism and the nature of slavery in the U.S. Turner, Roy, and Derricotte sought to empower Black youth and facilitate racial harmony by improving white children’s attitudes towards Black people. They believed prejudice was the root of racism and could be eliminated through an education that challenged racial stereotypes and omissions about African Americans’ contributions to U.S. society. The educators underscored Black people’s “Americanness,” and thus, their belonging. They believed doing so would facilitate integration. Additionally, the teacher’s stories in their second book aligned with revisionist scholarship on slavery during the 1930s and 1940s that centered African American’s experiences. Because of the academic research involved in designing learning material for children, Roy and Turner’s books reflected debates and trends in the historiography on slavery. Their struggle against epistemological injustice for the empowerment of marginalized children and racial justice provides an early model for teachers today.