“Beating against the Wind”

In this article, authors offer a CRT-driven analysis of in-depth interview data from two African American principals charged with turning around poverty-impacted, largely African-American populated schools. Both served as social justice-oriented leaders who countered traditional administrative approaches and disrupted racially and/or socioeconomically biased practices. Their leadership and student advocacy methods clashed with district ideals and policies, and each faced severe repercussions. The authors highlight why supporting and retaining such school leaders is necessary, and offer strategies capable of helping the educational community move forward in supporting a vulnerable leadership population commonly assigned to improve the most challenging U.S. schools.

Pink and Sister

This chapter introduces the African American principals in the book, Emily Burns and George Pearls a.k.a. Lawrence Williams. The history of the African American experience in Natchez, from slavery through Reconstruction and Jim Crow, is discussed. George lived in Chicago and when he came to Natchez in 1932 he introduced himself to Emily as Pinkney. He was called “Pink” and she was known in the community as “Sister.” Emily’s mother Nellie Black is introduced, as is their boarder, Edgar Allen Poe Newell or “Poe.” Both Emily and her mother were widows and domestics. All suffered from poverty, particularly in the depths of the Great Depression.