LUNCH WITH BOOKS: Archiving Wheeling Presents: Lesser Known Legends of Wheeling - Eileen Miller

February 08, 2022
12:00pm - 1:00pm

Miss Eileen Miller (1921-2010), an African American teacher from Wheeling, taught here before, during, and after school desegregation following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Kent State University professor Dr. Martha Lash and Monica Cooper will share Miss Miller’s story which stands as an exemplar of the desegregation experience and as such deserves a place in the history as a talented educator who gracefully and powerfully managed her teaching career through many changes.

Dr. Lash shares, "A master’s degree student posed the following question to our Professional Development in Teaching class: 'Did anyone in class have an African American teacher during any of their PK-12 years?' Only two raised their hands: the African American female student posing the question, and I, a middle-aged, female, Caucasian professor. The class discussion revolved around the topic of the relatively few teachers of color who grace our public schools. It also left me with lingering questions of how and why an educated and talented African American teacher had taught me in eighth grade in my predominantly European American community on the northern edge of Appalachia during my school years in the 1960s and 1970s." 

In addition to being in-person in the Library auditorium, this program will be available to watch live on Facebook Live, on YouTube, and on the OCPL website's LWB Livestream page.  Log into your Facebook or YouTube account during the program to leave questions for our presenters in the comments box. They will answer them during the live broadcast. 

PRESENTER BIO: Dr. Martha Lash received a B.A. in Sociology, West Liberty State College, WV,  a Masters of Ed in Curriculum Studies, Early Childhood emphasis, Indiana University-Bloomington, 1996, and a Ph.D in Curriculum Studies, Early Childhood emphasis, Indiana University-Bloomington, 2004. A professor at Kent State University since 2003,  her areas of specialty are Early Childhood Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies. At Kent State, Dr. Lash led the early childhood teacher education program to be the first university in the Americas to embed the IB Certificate for Teaching and Learning in the undergraduate teacher certification program, as well as to offer the certificate to graduate level students. Dr. Lash co-chaired the inaugural International Baccalaureate Educator’s Certificate University Research Conference at Kent State in May 2016. She has served in a faculty advisory role for the KSU Child Development Center (CDC) (early years’ laboratory school) for teacher training and IBPYP feasibility in view of Reggio Emilia inspired approach as the CDC became an IB World Candidate School. Dr. Lash also serves as the Coordinator of the Consortium for Overseas Student Teachers for KSU. She has presented internationally and conducted early childhood teacher educator workshops in Turkey, Pakistan, India, and Tajikistan. Dr. Lash’s research interests focus on teacher preparation and professional development; early childhood curricula; and cultural understandings of early childhood issues.

FEATURED BOOK:The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools by Vanessa Siddle Walker (The New Press, 2018)
[ Reserve a copy from the Library (ordered - coming soon)  |  Download ebook through Hoopla Digital with your OCPL library card  |  Purchase a copy online through bookshop.org to support local book stores or visit indiebound.org to find The Lost Education of Horace Tate in a bookstore near you.  |  Purchase online through Amazon ]

For two years an aging Dr. Horace Tate—a former teacher, principal, and state senator—told Emory University professor Vanessa Siddle Walker about his clandestine travels on unpaved roads under the cover of night, meeting with other educators and with Dr. King, Georgia politicians, and even U.S. presidents. Sometimes he and Walker spoke by phone, sometimes in his office, sometimes in his home; always Tate shared fascinating stories of the times leading up to and following Brown v. Board of Education. Dramatically, on his deathbed, he asked Walker to return to his office in Atlanta, in a building that was once the headquarters of another kind of southern strategy, one driven by integrity and equality.

Just days after Dr. Tate’s passing in 2002, Walker honored his wish. Up a dusty, rickety staircase, locked in a concealed attic, she found the collection: a massive archive documenting the underground actors and covert strategies behind the most significant era of the fight for educational justice. Thus began Walker’s sixteen-year project to uncover the network of educators behind countless battles—in courtrooms, schools, and communities—for the education of black children. Until now, the courageous story of how black Americans in the South won so much and subsequently fell so far has been incomplete. The Lost Education of Horace Tate is a monumental work that offers fresh insight into the southern struggle for human rights, revealing little-known accounts of leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, as well as hidden provocateurs like Horace Tate.

ABOUT ARCHIVING WHEELING:
Archiving Wheeling is an online community designed to showcase the local and regional history collections of the Ohio County Public Library and its heritage partners through powerful storytelling. The mission of Archiving Wheeling is to virtually connect these collections, providing a web-based community archive to facilitate access, by researchers and the general public, to materials that document the rich history of our region. It is hoped that greater public awareness of what is available will encourage people to consider donating important archival materials to the appropriate local organization so that these historically significant materials can be properly preserved, housed, and accessed locally, where they originated and where they belong.

Visit Archiving Wheeling at http://www.archivingwheeling.org/.

Lunch With Books Livestream starts at noon on Facebook and YouTube.

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"Lunch With Books" is the library’s flagship program for adult patrons. These lunchtime programs feature authors, poets, musicians, historians, and more every Tuesday at noon. Bring lunch (to the Library Auditorium or your computer), feed your brain!