I’m Every Woman: Advancing the Intersectional Leadership of Black Women School Leaders as Anti-Racist Praxis

Abstract

The rallying, clarion call to #SayHerName has prompted the United States to intentionally include the lives, voices, struggles, and contributions of Black women and countless others of her ilk who have suffered and strived in the midst of anti-Black racism. To advance a leadership framework that is rooted in the historicity of brilliance embodied in Black women’s educational leadership, and their proclivity for resisting oppression, we expand on intersectional leadership. We develop this expansion along three dimensions of research centering Black women’s leadership: the historical foundation of Black women’s leadership in schools and communities, the epistemological basis of Black women’s racialized and gendered experiences, and the ontological characterization of Black women’s expertise in resisting anti-Black racism in educational settings. We conclude with a four tenet articulation detailing how intersectional leadership: (a) is explicitly anti-racist; (b) is explicitly anti-sexist; (c) explicitly acknowledges the multiplicative influences of marginalization centering race and gender, and across planes of identity; and (d) explicitly leverages authority to serve and protect historically underserved communities.

Unapologetic Educational Research: Addressing Anti-Blackness, Racism, and White Supremacy

“…There's an impressive list of Black women educational leaders who were formally trained in elite colleges and universities who subsequently started schools or worked at schools that served Black children. The first school established for Black students by a Black woman was founded by Lucy Craft Laney in Augusta, Georgia in 1886 (Peters & Miles Nash, 2021). She is credited for training Mary McCloud Bethune and Nanny Helen Burroughs and many, many others (Peters & Miles Nash, 2021).…”

“…The first school established for Black students by a Black woman was founded by Lucy Craft Laney in Augusta, Georgia in 1886 (Peters & Miles Nash, 2021). She is credited for training Mary McCloud Bethune and Nanny Helen Burroughs and many, many others (Peters & Miles Nash, 2021). As such, in this pre-Brown, post-emancipation period Black principals operated with a greater autonomy than we do today.…”

“…When we examine the history of Blacks in education, there's not only what happens, such as the landmark Brown decision, but the subtext or the implicit meaning that such a decision had-what Linda Tillman calls the unintended consequences (Tillman, 2004; also see Peters & Miles Nash, 2021). So, I published an article on the subtext of the Brown decision-that desegregation closed Black schools and not white ones, and displaced Black educators and not white ones (Peters, 2019).…”

The Rise of the School District Chief Equity Officer: Moving Beyond Mimetic Isomorphism and Promoting Anti-Racist Systemic Change

“…Given the pervasive nature of systemic racism, research also notes that Black principals experience racial microaggressions and racial battle fatigue (Krull & Robicheau, 2020). This scholarship also accounts for intersectionality and the experiences of multiply marginalized educational leaders (e.g., Lomotey, 2019; Peters, 2012, Peters & Miles Nash, 2021). Research also documents the experiences of white principals who struggle to implement an anti-racist vision, noting efforts to maintain racial neutrality, outward opposition to conversations about race, and general feelings of a lack of preparedness to address systemic racism (Swanson & Welton, 2019).…”

Black Women Leaders: Going High in a World of Lows

“…Finally, integrating these three areas highlights Black women as leaders in the community, a role that was born from a need to overcome a legacy of oppression and ultimately, the innate need to survive. This role extends Black women’s identity beyond organizational and institutional settings and has prepared Black women with purpose-driven, community activism to confront, resist, and face-down systemic oppression (Peters & Miles Nash, 2021).…”