Black History Month February 2025: An Essay about True Professional Diversity and Its Vital Importance to Our Schools

After I finished this essay, I realized that I am not gonna be able to say all that I need to say in one post. This will be the first of what I hope will be several essays about the value of true diversity – not the forced kind but the kind that comes from deep within our character. With that in mind, Black History Month is about three weeks away. Regarding our Kingsport school system, I thought this might be a good time to have an introspective talk about the need for more teachers who are African American. So here goes….

I don’t ascribe to forced inclusivity. I do, however, believe that we had better be better at ascribing to the idea of “e pluribus unum.” I believe that accepting others is a matter of the heart, and something which we can model. With that said, I think that the history of African American men and women shouldn’t just be confined to the month of February. We should make sure that the history, great works, major discoveries, leaders, and overcomers of African American culture are included throughout the school year. Out of many…one.

For most of my career, I have been blessed to work with people who are African American. I can assure you that my perspective was altered and bettered by their presence. They were more than my coworkers. They are my friends to this day. Without fail, they had the highest expectations of students in the building, both academically and behaviorally. They also had incredibly high expectations of themselves and also their coworkers. During my last job, we catastrophically had successive central office administrations who allowed our system to lose its professional diversity. They simply quit trying to hire people who looked like all of the children we served.

What happened next was a complete collapse of many building cultures. In my building, we lost our long time secretary who was African American. She had attended Douglass High School here in Kingsport. We lost all three classroom teachers who were African American. They were irreplaceable and extraordinary as professionals regardless of color. With their lose, we lost connection to churches, civic groups, and people who helped found our city. In short, we lost our footing. Expectations in our building dropped. Our test scores dropped. We lost the very people who held our building accountable. We lost the fabric which held us together. All four individuals knew the price of failed education experiences, and they took a “not on my watch” approach to everything from staff meetings, planning, test scores, community involvement, my air conditioner setting, and much more. But the greater loss for me was their every day comradery and friendship. Just to say it bluntly, I knew where I stood all the time. They taught me to be honest and straight forward in my conversations, because nothing else was gonna cut it! They also taught me to speak-up, and to quite letting others do it for me!

Now, I don’t want to over generalize. I also have worked with many coworkers who are white and who are also some of my dearest friends. In my last post, I noted that Samuel noted that God doesn’t look at the outward appearance of a man, but he looks into the heart.

This will be the first of several posts about diversity in education. Again, I don’t believe that we should force inclusivity upon people unless the practice has become so egregious that African American people are being excluded based upon their race. I believe that the “color” (or lack of it) of our schools systems is a direct reflection of the hearts of the people who lead it.

I asked a friend the other day. If you placed me in charge of recruiting teachers(I would love that job by the way), how long do you think it would take me to develop a pool of diverse teachers?

Whey did I ask that? Well, I hear so many excuses -> “People who are African American won’t even apply. We have already recruited on college campuses. The interview pool is so small. We have tried our best, and just can’t get anyone to interview.” Well, that is just a total cop out and pure sign of laziness by those in charge of this process. It seems it is nobody’s fault, and it also seems it is nobody’s responsibility. We had diversity before, we can have it again. Our current mayor is African American. Our city is ready for this.

So my answer to my own question. I could have a quality pool of 30-40 applicants(who are African American) who are willing to work in Kingsport withing 12 months. I would also build a pipeline by actively recruiting local high school students, keep up with them in college, provide summer opportunities. I would actively travel to college campuses, recruit the best(regardless of color, but not forgetting race either). I would zoom. I would be active on social media. And we would get that job done, and be so much better for it. If you know me, I think words are cheap. I look at actions. I am just tired of hearing of all of the programs that we are doing to fix this problem. In reality, those programs aren’t bearing enough fruit. We must meet person to person. We must actively and consistently reach out. We must sell the belief (and believe it deep down) that we are better when the hands which serve our students are fully represented by all shades of human pigment.

All of our leadership at ASC and the BOE are all white. All of our principals are white. We can do better. We must be intentional, visionary, and active in bringing our workforce into the 21s century. I promise you that if we do that, we will be so much better for it.

If you don’t read anything else, read this -> Nikki Giovanni has greatly influenced my life through her writing. I worked with a person who knew her as a friend. To me, she was a poet. To others, a friend. To others, a teacher. Nikki died on December 9, 2024. She was educated at Fisk, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania. She was a professor at Virginia Tech. She held 31 honorary doctorates. She wrote volumes of beautiful poetry. She was from Knoxville, Tennessee. I will leave you with her words.

“I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.” Nikki Giovanni

ProTip: I am sure that I have probably haven’t met modern day standards for speaking about diversity. So, you are gonna just have to look into my heart. We need to learn to speak plainly about things. In short, we need more people who are African American working at all levels of our school system in Kingsport. We will be so much better. Most importantly, our students will see that we value all people as important in our school system. They will literally see it. Let’s be about actions and not words. Let’s not just be could-a-beens. Let’s be do-ers. Let’s leave a generational blessing and a generational legacy for our community and our students. Now is the time.

Standing Offer: And if you can’t find someone to do this, send me. I will do it. I have been asked what it would take me to come back to education. Let me recruit great teachers or let me coach cross country. Both would be great.