American history abounds with stories about
teachers known for heroic achievements. One such teacher is
Maritcha Remond Lyons, an African American woman who served the New York City
public school system for forty-eight years. She was
also an accomplished musician, an avid writer, and a published author.
Maritcha was born on May 23, 1848, in New York
City, the third of five children born to parents Albro and Mary (Marshall) Lyons.
She was raised in New York’s free black community, where her father operated a boarding
house and outfitting store for black sailors on the docks of New York’s Lower
East Side. Her parents emphasized the importance of making the best of
oneself, and they also modeled the significance of helping others.
A sickly child, Maritcha was nevertheless
dedicated to gaining an education. Maritcha once said she harbored a “love of
study for study’s sake.” She was enrolled in Colored School Number 3 in
Manhattan, which was governed by Charles Reason, a former teacher at the
Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia.
Maritcha’s parents were abolitionists, and
were both active in the Underground Railroad. Obviously, these activities were
not without dangers. The family home came under attack several times during the
New York City Draft Riots of July, 1863, when Maritcha was just a teenager. The
family escaped to safety in Salem, Massachusetts, but after the danger passed,
her parents insisted on sending their children to lie in Providence, Rhode
Island. In Providence, Maritcha was refused enrollment in the local high school
because she was African American. Because there was no school for black
students, her parents sued the state of Rhode Island and won their case,
helping to end segregation in that state. When she graduated, Maritcha was the
first black student to graduate from Providence High School.
After her high school graduation, Maritcha
returned to New York, where she enrolled in Brooklyn Institute to study music
and languages, When she graduated in 1869, she accepted a teaching position at
one of Brooklyn’s first schools for African American students, Colored School
Number 1.
Maritcha’s worked first as an elementary
school teacher, then as an assistant principal, and finally as a principal.
During her nearly fifty-year career, she co-founded the White Rose Mission in
Manhattan’s San Juan Hill District, which provided resources to migrants from
the South and immigrants from the West Indies.
This remarkable chalkboard hero passed away at
the age of eighty on January 28, 1929.
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