Only 7 percent of teachers in the U.S. are Black and Black males make up only 2 percent.

In 1954, there were 82,000 Black educators in the United States. However, the population of Black educators consistently decreased because after the Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregated schools. Many Black educators could not get jobs at the newly segregated schools, resulting in more than 38,000 Black teachers and administrators in 17 southern states losing their jobs.

In 2018, just 1 in 10 teachers in Baltimore City were Black. Four years and a pandemic later, Baltimore is still looking to diversify their schools with not just more Black teachers, but specifically more Black male teachers.

Alex White, Daimen Poole, and Kirk E. Gaddy are three men in the Baltimore area that are doing their part as Black male educators. These three men work at different schools, one in a different age group, to break the stereotypes placed among Black male educators.

Alex White is a physical education teacher at St. Agnes Catholic School. Daimen Poole teaches history at Digital Harbor High School. Kirk E. Gaddy is a theology and male social development teacher at St. Francis Academy, where he is also the Assistant Director of the athletic department.

Mr. White has been working with children for over ten years as an instructor at summer camps, after school programs, and early child development programs, and recently became a full-time educator after graduating from Morgan State University in 2020.

Mr. Gaddy has been teaching at his alma mater St. Francis Academy for five years, and has been the assistant director of the athletic department for the last four years.

Mr. Poole has been teaching for _ years, with _ of those years being a history teacher at Digital Harbor High School.

"There's nothing better in the world than to be a part of future generations by being an educator," says White, "My favorite part of being a teacher is the smiling faces I see students have after leaving my class. It is such a warm feeling to think you're making a positive impact on a child's education."

"Close to 80 percent of City Schools' students are African American; just over 40 percent of City Schools' teachers identify as African American. And while this percentage is higher than it has been for seven years, issues that stifle development and empowerment of Black teachers are deeply rooted."

Two studies done by Nicholas Papageorge and Seth Gershenson collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, American University and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) have proven that there is a direct correlation between college matriculation in Black students and those same students experiencing a same-race educator before high school.

According to “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers”, assigning black male students to a black teacher in the third, fourth, or fifth grades, significantly reduces the probability that he drops out of high schools.

Exposure to a black teacher for Black students of both sexes has been proven to perpetuate aspirations of going to college.

Black male children that come from a poor economic background and experience a same-race educator are 29% more likely to have self-reported intent to pursue a four-year college education at their high school graduation. 

According to “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers”, a study done by Gershenson in 2016 shows that black teachers expect more from black students than do white teachers.

“As a Black male educator, I definitely hold my scholars to a high standard,” says Poole, “I do that because the real world has never been fair to Black people, particularly Black young boys. As a part of their village, it’s my duty to prepare them for that.”

“It makes a difference to have a Black educator!,” says White, “My first Black teacher was my middle school gym teacher and his presence and teaching definitely stayed with me during my life. I think having Black teachers, especially male teachers, shows students 1) There are Black educators and Black people are smart as well, 2) We motivate and inspire people to be the best that they can be.”

Diamond Garey, a second grade teacher at Walter P. Carter Elementary School, has always appreciated working with Black male educators. 

“I appreciate the Black male educators and our predominantly Black male administration because it shows the students a healthy, cohesive relationship between Black men and Black women,” says Garey, “It shows that we can be a team that all work together for the bigger goal.”

According to The Black Butterfly by Lawrence T. Brown, there has been a major demographic shift in the population of Black male educators in the Baltimore City Public School system (BCPS). 

In 2005, 63.2% of BCPS educators were Black. Numbers plummeted to 38.4% of BCPS being Black educators in 2014. 

In the most recent diversity investigation published by BCPS in 2018, just over 40% of teachers identified as Black. That is the highest percentage seen in years in a school system with close to 80% of its students being Black. 

Black students were officially allowed to attend public schools in Baltimore in 1867, however they were not allowed to be taught by Black educators for another 22 years in 1889. 

Research studied by social psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff in 2014 shows that white people that hold authoritative positions - like teachers - are more likely to hold racial bias and lack of childhood innocence against their Black students than their white counterparts. 

Black students, especially young Black boys, are not given the benefit of childhood innocence. 

Goff’s studies claim that Black boys “are seen as more culpable for their actions (i.e. less innocent) within a criminal justice context” than white boys. 

In his study, a group of mostly white male police officers and a group of mostly white female undergraduate students were studied. 

The task was to look at pictures of apes or large cats, choose which picture they’d associate with Black children. 

The officers that were more likely to exude force upon Black children associated the Black children with the pictures of apes. 

By the same token, the group of mostly white undergraduate women that also associated the Black children with the pictures of apes, also believe Black children over the age of 10 are not innocent and that they need protection from those children. 

“As a younger Black male educator that grew up in Baltimore and works at my alma mater, I definitely relate to my students. I graduated from there ten years ago, so I understand when they have issues with other teachers because some of them were my teachers,” says Gaddy.

"Since 2013, Black students have been roughly 80% of the BCPSS student population, but the average student body of the students in schools permanently closed has been 95% Black."

Well now that this particular problem has been identified in BCPS, how do we fix it?

According to “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers”, the two most solid solutions would be to diversify the teacher workforce or to strengthen the racial sensitivity training of white professionals. 

Christopher Smith, a professional development coach that specializes in assisting teachers in understanding their  young black students more, thinks both solutions need to be done. 

“If the amount of Black educators in Baltimore is half the amount of Black students , and Black students make up the majority of BCPS students,” Smith explains, “then there just aren’t enough Black teachers. That also doesn’t take away from the fact that due to the lack of Black educators, we need to continually train their white counterparts in racial sensitivity.” 

In a report released in June 2019 from BCPS, the best ways to recruit more Black teachers is by “Providing full-time mentors in schools with the highest numbers of new, Black teachers and where turnover of Black teachers is persistently highest” and by “creating a cohort-based support structure specifically for conditionally certified teachers to offer holistic supports that are uniquely targeted toward this group of new teachers with higher attrition risk.”

In the last published account, the amount of Black educators has went up about 5%. However, Black educators have been uplifting and strengthening each other through programs like the Center for Black Educator Development and their weekend-long Black Men Educators Convening event. 

Regardless of occupation, age, and even gender Alex, Chris, Daimen, Diamond, and Kirk all agree that Black students need Black teachers and that Black teachers will continue to uplift each other and their scholars for the purpose of the greater good.