In early December, Hampton University President William R. Harvey told a group of people at Yale Law School as the keynote speaker of an “HBCUs and Minority Teacher Recruitment Summit” that school districts nationwide “needs” to hire more minority teachers.
The event was in collaboration with the Connecticut NAACP and New Haven (Conn.) Public Schools.
“It doesn’t mean that teachers who are white can’t have a positive impact, but the fact is it needs to be more African-American teachers,” Harvey said.
“That was the major driver for me to go up and talk about what the facts are,” Harvey added. “Not emotion, but facts, and then to suggest to them doing something about it. One of the things I said is I don’t like to curse the darkness, I like to light a candle.”
Harvey, who has led Hampton for nearly four decades, also suggested the following ideas for colleges and universities and school districts to recruit more minority teachers:
- The profession can be better marketed to potential students;
- HBCUs can partner with their neighboring school districts;
- Federal funding should be designated for teaching programs and;
- A consortium of foundations should come together to help allocate funding for programs
Hampton University is one of the top historically black universities in the world. Hampton is a tightly-knit community of learners and educators, representing 49 states and 35 territories and nations.
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