E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Education Post and Philly’s 7th Ward, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.
But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month and February is just the Blackest. All year are ongoing opportunities to learn and teach and the colossal impact Black educators have had on society.
Today, our featured Black educator is Mary S. Peake.
Mary S. Peake was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1823. She was a bi-racial heritage; her father, a white Englishman and her mother, a free black woman. Always encouraged by her parents to strive in education, peak, attended a private school for Black children in both Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington DC. Unfortunately, Congress closed D.C. schools to African-Americans thus ending her education career there.
At the age of 16, Peake taught reading and writing to the enslaved—at a time where teaching enslaved persons was illegal. Nevertheless, Peake risked her life and freedom to teach Black people because she believed in the need for Black people to learn. Education is a passport to the future. African people we’re well aware of this—particularly during the antebellum period.
Also, of note, Peake taught enslaved people during a period of continued hysteria as a result of the Nat Turner rebellion just eight years earlier. Yet the risk she took to teach the enslaved was well worth it. But she protected herself by teaching in secret as she supported herself during the daytime as dressmaker. Peake taught her stepfather, and other men, reading and writing which helped them become leaders and speakers on behalf of the Free African-American population in Hampton, Virginia.
At the same time, peak founded the Daughters of Zion, whose purpose was ministering to the poor and to the sick. In 1861, the American Missionary Association (AMA) sent Lewis Lockwood to start a school to teach formerly enslaved persons recently emancipated and Peake was hired as the first teacher. She only had six students, but she was famous for teaching them under a tree which was later called the emancipation tree. This tree would become a national monument.
Sadly, Peake suffered from tuberculosis, which she contracted prior to the Civil War. Her teaching schedule and her philanthropic work led her to become bedridden. Yet she was always dedicated to her students; she continued to teach while bedridden. Sadly, Mary Peake died on February 22, 1862 at the age of 39 due to tuberculosis, leaving behind her husband, Thomas Peake, as well as her daughter Daisy.
Peake taught over 500 students from Alexandria, Newport News, Norfolk, and Hampton, Virginia. Her tombstone reads “First teacher of Friedman at Fortress Monroe, Virginia.” Mary Peake was an example of what it means to give your all at risk of your own life to serve. She believed in Black people enough to risk her life to save them through education. She is an inspiration to us all as we strive to educate Black children in this society.
Mary S. Peake; a member of the Black Educator Hall of Fame.
For more information on Mary S. Peake, visit the following site.
