As we conclude Women’s History Month, it’s time to take a moment to look clearly at who has always been at the heart of the fight for justice and what educators can learn from them. Among the pantheon of transformational leadership in American history, Black women whose names are often sanitized, stigmatized, or sidelined through the course of time deserve special recognition. Their power came not from titles or celebrity, but from a bold defiance, love, and an unshakable commitment to their communities.
More than simply activists, these women were servant leaders in the truest sense. Their efforts to advance justice were premised on a determination as selfless as it was courageous. They didn’t seek the spotlight, and they didn’t wait for permission. Vitally, they didn’t flinch in the face of abuse and hatred. They led with love, and their work influenced my own Mama’s. As she often would state, if you want peace, fight for justice. Because, surely, justice will give birth to peace.
Fannie Lou Hamer was hated for telling the truth. Not just disliked—hated. She was beaten, jailed, and surveilled for daring to demand voting rights for Black people in the South.
The most dangerous thing in America, it seemed, was a Black woman who wouldn’t back down. But her love for her people was stronger than any fear.
She spoke from the soil of Mississippi and never apologized for the fierceness of her advocacy. Hamer taught us that real courage looks like naming injustice, even when it makes people uncomfortable.
Rosa Parks is often reduced to a quiet seamstress tired of silently sitting where she was told and one day said enough was enough. That version isn’t accurate – not in the least. Rosa Parks was a longtime investigator for the NAACP, documenting cases of sexual assault and violence against Black women in the South. Well before she refused to give up her seat, she was leading transformative liberation work. After she moved north to Detroit, she was told she was too militant when she ran for leadership in the local NAACP.
Rosa Parks was many things, but meek wasn’t one of them. Her legacy is a vital reminder that truly standing up for what’s right and just means taking real risks, not just symbolic ones.
The strategic mind behind some of the most impactful organizing of the civil rights era, Ella Baker’s aim wasn’t the podium—she wanted to build power. She helped launch the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), mentored generations of young leaders, and believed deeply in community-based schools and Freedom Schools.
She understood that education isn’t just about passing tests—it’s about preparing young people to confront the world as it is and make it better. Ella Baker’s life is a blueprint for how to lead by elevating others, especially youth.
What unites these women, and so many other Black women throughout history, is a fierce, unrelenting love for humanity, for Blackness, and for what’s right. They refused to separate the fight for justice from the act of nurturing – quintessentially what we, at the Center for Black Educator Development believe is the founding force of effective and impactful education. And they demonstrated daily a willingness to hold the line of anti-racism firmly and the bar for justice high, not just for themselves but for the people and communities they served.
Educators today need to embrace a similar spirit.
We’re living in a moment where book bans are on the rise, truth is ushered out the door for politically convenient narratives, and students are navigating crises far beyond the classroom walls. We can't afford to pretend that schools are separate from the broader social context. If we care about kids, we have to fiercely care about what impacts their future and what happens to them today. That’s something these women knew intimately.
So as we celebrate Women’s History Month, we should commemorate, to be sure, but also emulate that which was most powerful and transformative in the work and lives of the Hamers, Parks, and Bakers of history, as well as the countless unnamed women whose fearlessness was born of love.
Educators are uniquely positioned to do this. We can emulate this spirit not just through what we teach but also through how we lead, how we show up, and whom we choose to stand beside.