Torch Bearers in Education and Science

Education has been a key element in the survival growth and development of African American individuals and communities. The quest for education be it formal or informal has been a fact of life for African Americans wherever they have lived in this hemisphere. People of African descent, be they enslaved or free placed a very high value on education, because they knew that without the ability to read, write and calculate for themselves, they would be vulnerable to the oppressive forces that surrounded them. Those forces were also clear that the education of people of African descent ran counter to efforts to enslave, control, and exploit black people. Thus, the education of African American people has been achieved by struggle and that struggle has required educational leaders like those celebrated remembered with the monuments in this page. As is often the case, some of the leaders depicted here are well known for their endeavors in other fields. For instance, George Washington Carver is best known as a scientist and inventor, yet he was also an educator. Booker T. Washington was know as an educator and as an advocate for racial uplift. Mary McCloud Bethune might be best known today for her political activism and leadership. However, they were also torch bearers, leading lights, in the field of education.