Honoring Dr. E. Babette Edwards: Harlem’s “Othermother”

Terri N. Watson

Faculty Leader

Terri N. Watson, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and the inaugural 2022 – 2024 Provost Fellow at The City College of New York. She is also the founding director of the college’s Office for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging. Her scholarship examines effective school leadership and centers the ingenuity of Black women in their roles as mothers, othermothers, teachers, and school leaders. She employs Critical Race Theory and Black Feminist theories as methodological frameworks.

Marta Gutman

Marta Gutman, historian and licensed architect, is the dean of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York | CUNY. An expert in the history of public architecture for children, her chapter, “Intermediate School 201: Race, Space, and Modern Architecture in Harlem,” in Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community, ed. Ansley T. Erickson and Ernest Morrell (Columbia University Press, 2019) received the Catherine W. Bishir Prize in 2021.

Dr. E. Babette Edwards

Dr. E. Babette Edwardsa groundbreaking educator, community activist, and Harlem’s beloved othermother.

Read Dr. E. Babette Edwards Biographical/historical information below from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, which houses Dr. Edwards archive:

Dr. E. Babette Edwards began her career as a parent leader and advocate for school reform in New York City in the 1950s. Born and raised in Harlem, she remained in the neighborhood working to improve the education system and to raise awareness about educational issues, specifically those affecting African-American and Latino students.

In 1958, Edwards became involved with the negotiating committee to establish a new public school in Harlem, the Arthur A. Schomburg Intermediate School 201 Complex (I.S. 201), whose purpose was to alleviate overcrowding conditions in the neighborhood. The new school was conceived with the intention of having an integrated student body, and to offer a higher quality of education than the existing neighborhood schools. However, the Board of Education was unable to recruit white students to attend the school, and although it was slated to open in 1965, the school remained closed amid protests from parents.

In December 1966, Edwards participated in an occupation of a New York City Board of Education hearing in Brooklyn, in what was known as the People’s Board of Education. At the hearing, members of the community were symbolically elected and took the seats of current Board of Education members, remaining in the hearing room for three days until they were arrested. The sit-in was an action to raise awareness about demands for decentralization of neighborhood public schools, and to promote a greater level of participation in educational matters by parents and community groups.

In 1967, Edwards served as co-chairperson on the East Harlem Task Force for Quality Education, which advocated for I.S. 201’s independence from Board of Education management, and petitioned for an elected governing board of parents and community members to be put in place to run the school. In April of 1967, the school was opened to students when an agreement was reached with the Board of Education for I.S. 201 to be operated by a community-elected governing board that included parents, teachers, and community representatives. In the fall of 1967, Governing Board elections were held, and Edwards was elected as a community representative.

In September of 1968, I.S 201 received funding from the state of New York as one of three Community Education Centers known as “Demonstration Districts,” whose purpose was to demonstrate how community control of a school district can improve the school. However, in 1970, Edwards and the Governing Board of I.S. 201 called for a boycott of the community board elections in response to the Decentralization Law of 1969. The new law placed control of the school’s budget, staff hiring, textbook selection, curriculum, and construction under the jurisdiction of the New York City Board of Education, and created much larger school districts. In 1971, Edwards resigned from the Governing Board, and soon after the Board of Education voted to eliminate the demonstration districts.

Edwards went on to co-found and work as executive director of The Harlem Parents Union (HPU) in 1969. HPU’s mission was to improve schools in Harlem and the education its students received. HPU performed advocacy services such as escorting parents to student suspension hearings, assisting students at the hearings, aiding students in gaining admissions to selective enrollment schools, meeting with school administrators, educating parent groups in school selection, communicating with local community school boards, and participating in citizen-led efforts to improve the public school system.

In 1974, Edwards and the HPU organized a New York City public schools boycott to protest conditions at neighborhood schools. The parents of eleven students withdrew their children from school and demanded that the Board of Education reallocate funds that would have been spent on public schooling to the families to spend on a higher quality education of their choosing. Edwards operated an alternative school from HPU’s Harlem community center, which offered education to students participating in the boycott and to those dissatisfied with New York City’s public school education.

Edwards was a strong proponent of implementing a voucher system for students enrolled in underfunded public schools. As chairperson of the Harlem based organization, Citizens Committee for Effective Education, she argued that vouchers would give the students at failing schools the same opportunities as those from more affluent backgrounds. In 1975, she presented her argument to the New York State Board of Regents at the Regents Legislative Conference in a statement entitled, “Education Vouchers for Blacks and Hispanics.” In 1976, as a member of the National Board of Trustees with Citizens for Educational Freedom, Edwards spoke in support of education vouchers to members of the Democratic Platform Committee of the Democratic Party.

In 1993, Edwards and the HPU participated in an ACLU/NYCLU-authored amicus curiae in the case of Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. (CFE) v. State of New York. The case brought by the CFE contended that state funding for education in New York City was inadequate, unequal, and resulted in inferior education for students attending New York City public schools. The litigation asserted that these inequities were in violation of anti-discrimination provisions of the New York State Constitution, and Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Statutes.

In 2000, Edwards helped found the Harlem Education Roundtable, where she served as both chairperson and Board president. In 2002, the organization proposed building a public charter school in central Harlem called The Harlem Roundtable Academy for Excellence in Education. They also hosted workshops for parents and public school students about education policy.

Basil A. Smikle Jr

Basil A. Smikle Jr., Ph.D., is a Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Public Policy Program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. He was appointed by former Governor David Paterson to serve as the Executive Director of the New York State Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential cycle where he was the “second highest ranking Democrat” in the State. He holds a PhD in Politics and Education and an MPA from Columbia University and received a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

Nan Eileen Mead

Nan Eileen Mead is currently the Director of Outreach and Communications at the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University. From 2016 to 2022, Ms. Mead represented the 1st Judicial District, which includes Manhattan, on the New York State Board of Regents. During her tenure, she co-chaired the Regents Subcommittee on State Aid, where she was deeply involved in developing the annual education budget proposal. Ms. Mead elevated parent and student voices, particularly during the pandemic, and contributed to the development of the Regents’ framework and policy statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ms. Mead is also a Co-Editor of and contributor to the Journal of Engaged Research. Before her election to the Regents, Ms. Mead was a financial sector professional and parent leader serving on several local policy and advocacy boards, including Community Education Council 3 and the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council of New York City. She holds degrees in politics, public policy, and education.

Sean L. Davenport

In July 2022, Sean L. Davenport, Ed.D., was appointed Superintendent of Community School District 5 in Central Harlem. Dr. Davenport was excited to return to one of the most historical school communities in the country, where he had spent over 20 years of his 26-year career. In 2004, The Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III., Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, envisioned an elementary school as a feeder to Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change. So, in 2005, Dr. Davenport founded the Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School. In 2011, Dr. Davenport assumed the principalship of Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change (TMA), a 6-12 secondary school, and in June 2018, graduated the educational corridor’s first K-12 pipeline.

Kadiatou Tubman

Kadiatou Tubman (They/She) is the Manager of Education Programs and Outreach at the Schomburg Center and director of the Schomburg Center’s renowned Junior Scholars Program. Kadiatou is a writer, public historian, educator, and administrator, and her pedagogy centralizes historical literacy, abolition, and arts education. She received her Bachelor’s degree in History and Africana Studies from Union College, and her Master’s degree in History Education from Columbia University. Her mission in life is to spread joy and achieve liberation. Kadiatou is the founder/executive producer of NYC’s Black Lives Matter Teen Conference, and the lead producer of the annual Black Comic Book Festival. Her work has been featured on NPR, NBC News, USA Today, CW11 News, PBS NewsHour, and TheGrio. She has hosted a number of programs with scholars like Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr. and Dr. Imani Perry; activist and BLM founder Patrisse Cullors; Super Bowl Champion & activist Michael Bennett; and legendary hip hop artists DJ Kool Herc, Big Daddy Kane, and Darryl McDaniels (DMC). You can learn more about her at kadiatoutubman.com or @kadiatoutubman on Instagram.