Pioneering teacher shared Black history in classroom and beyond, from TV show to trivia game
Pioneering teacher shared Black history in classroom and beyond, from TV show to trivia game
At a time when the teaching of Black history was just getting a foothold in academic settings, Edward Beasley Jr. was one of its most ardent and innovative practitioners.
The lifelong educator, who died in 2019 at age 87, established a Black studies program at Kansas City's Penn Valley Community College not long after the first of those programs launched in 1968, and also found creative ways to take the message far beyond classroom walls.
His commitment eventually led him to the presidency of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the organization that sets the national Black History Month theme each year.
READ MORE: Pioneering teacher shared Black history in classroom and beyond, from TV show to trivia game https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pioneeri...
At a time when the teaching of Black history was just getting a foothold in academic settings, Edward Beasley Jr. was one of its most ardent and innovative practitioners.
The lifelong educator, who died in 2019 at age 87, established a Black studies program at Kansas City's Penn Valley Community College not long after the first of those programs launched in 1968, and also found creative ways to take the message far beyond classroom walls.
His commitment eventually led him to the presidency of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the organization that sets the national Black History Month theme each year.
READ MORE: Pioneering teacher shared Black history in classroom and beyond, from TV show to trivia game https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pioneeri...
Over the years, the Omaha, Nebraska, native, who spent his career as a high school and college teacher in the Kansas City area, shared Black history with the wider community via TV and radio programs, a job training and readiness program and a Black trivia card game. Any place could be a classroom for Beasley, who also taught inmates at Leavenworth and Lansing penitentiaries in Kansas.