E’ry day this month, Philly’s 7th Ward, in partnership with the Center for Black Educator Development, will highlight a “Black Educator Hall of Famer.“ But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month. February is just the Blackest. Every day is an ongoing opportunity to learn and teach the colossal impact Black educators have had on society. (Photos by Josh I. Stewart)
Dr. Greg Carr
Dr. Greg Carr, master teacher and renowned scholar, was born on April 27, 1965, in Nashville, TN. As a child, his love of reading grew from experiences with his parents. His passion for reading, which has grown into a library with tens of thousands of books, was modeled after his father, an avid newspaper reader. Dr. Carr said of his parents, “Both of them were very brilliant. Like so many Black people, it wasn’t formal education; they just had that natural brilliance.”
Dr. Carr is a graduate of Tennessee State University for his undergraduate studies, the Ohio State Law School, and Temple University, where he received his doctorate in African American Studies. However, Dr. Carr didn’t limit his lessons to the academy. He studied under major figures like Alvon Chambliss, Dr. Jacob Carruthers, Theophile Obenga, James Turner, and others. Dr. Carr also learned from the esteemed Dr. John Henrik Clark for a decade until Dr. Clarke’s transition.
From these great scholars, Dr. Carr not only learned that Africana Studies was an academic field, but it was one that is not rooted in the American university, and that the university is merely a “means to an end” for teaching and building Africana students. That guiding principle would fuel Dr. Carr’s scholarship, curriculum development, and teaching throughout his career in the classroom and in the public square.
As a result, Dr. Carr sees himself and his work as such, dedicated to “jailbreaking” the university and serving the people.
“I’ve never seen myself as an academic who was rooted in the academy as such. It’s not a tradition that our people should elevate as the model for how we do intellectual work. My intellectual work has always been grounded in community because that’s the source of our strength… I decided that I would probably be of best service to our community in helping to engender similar consciousness and help young people develop their capacity to do the same thing.”
His dedication to the people has had a special impact on the city of Philadelphia, which Dr. Carr calls his second home. In 1999, Dr. Carr became the School District of Philadelphia’s First Resident Scholar on Race and Culture. In this role, he led a team of academics and educators in designing the curriculum framework for Philadelphia’s mandatory high school African American History course, from an Africana Studies lens, the first of its kind nationwide. A sample of that curriculum framework is currently online for folks to view and potentially replicate.
Currently, Dr. Carr is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, and an Adjunct Faculty member at the Howard School of Law. He is also the first Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and a former member of the board of the National Council for Black Studies. He is a co-founder of the Philadelphia Freedom Schools Movement, a community-based academic initiative that has involved over 13,000 elementary, high school, and college students.
Dr. Carr has lectured all over the world, including Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, and Brazil. His public work has appeared in various outlets, including Ebony Magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio (NPR). In addition to his work at Howard University, Dr. Carr can be heard on Sirius XM’s Urbanview Radio, occasionally on Roland Martin Unfiltered, and also on the Knarrative/Knubia platform, which is the largest Africana Studies classroom in the world.
Happy Black History Month and make sure to read up on Dr. Greg Carr, a member of the Black Educator Hall of Fame.
