Before There Were Classrooms, There Were Black Women Raising the Village

Before There Were Classrooms,

There Were Black Women Raising the Village

How Black History Lives Inside Every Child Care Center in America—

And Why This Matters More Than Ever in 2026

Let me ask you something.

When you drop your child off at daycare or preschool, do you ever think about who made that possible? Not just the teacher greeting your baby at the door. I mean who fought for the very concept that your child—regardless of race, income, or zip code—deserves quality care and early education?

The answer is rooted in Black history. Deeply. Undeniably. Beautifully.

This February, we’re not just celebrating Black History Month at Kidding Around Child Care Center. We’re honoring the truth that child care in America was built on the backs of Black women, shaped by Black scholars, and fought for by Black communities long before anyone else was paying attention.

And this year? The 2026 Black History Month theme—“A Century of Black History Commemorations”—makes this conversation more urgent than ever. We are standing in the 100th year of organized Black history celebrations, a tradition started by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926. One hundred years of remembering, preserving, and fighting for stories that others tried to erase. If that’s not reason enough to make this personal, I don’t know what is.

The Village Was Never a Metaphor—It Was a Survival Strategy

Long before the term “child care center” existed in any licensing manual, Black communities in America practiced collective child-rearing as an act of survival, resistance, and love.

During slavery, when families were torn apart at auction blocks, it was Black women—grandmothers, aunties, neighbors—who collectively raised children that weren’t biologically theirs. They created the first “child care networks” in this country, not out of convenience, but out of necessity and an unbreakable commitment to the next generation.

After emancipation, when Black families were rebuilding from nothing, community-based childcare remained essential. Black women organized cooperative care while parents worked fields, factories, and domestic positions. During the Great Migration, as millions of Black families moved north, informal childcare networks followed them—adjusting, adapting, and continuing to hold Black children up when systems refused to.

This is not a footnote in American history. This is the foundation of everything we do in early childhood education today. And if your childcare center isn’t acknowledging that, they’re leaving out the most important chapter.

The Black Pioneers Who Changed What “Childcare” Means

Let me introduce you to some names you may have never heard in a parenting blog—but should have.

Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark — The Woman Who Proved What Racism Does to Children

In the 1940s, Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark and her husband Kenneth conducted the now-famous “doll studies,” where young Black children consistently chose white dolls as “pretty” and “good” and rejected Black dolls. The findings were devastating—and revolutionary. Their research proved that segregation damaged Black children’s self-image at the earliest ages, and it became foundational evidence in the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared school segregation unconstitutional.

But Dr. Clark didn’t stop at research. In 1946, she founded the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem—the first facility in the neighborhood to offer mental health and therapeutic services specifically for children. She ran the center for over three decades, serving thousands of families and helping launch the national Head Start program.

Every time a childcare center teaches a child that they are beautiful, capable, and enough exactly as they are—they are walking in Mamie Phipps Clark’s footsteps.

Dr. Edmund W. Gordon — The Architect of Head Start

When President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, he tapped Dr. Edmund Gordon—a Black psychologist from segregated Goldsboro, North Carolina—to help design one of the most consequential early childhood programs in American history: Head Start.

Dr. Gordon and his colleagues envisioned Head Start not just as preschool, but as a whole-family intervention—addressing education, health, nutrition, and community support simultaneously. Today, Head Start serves nearly one million children annually. Dr. Gordon’s dream was that no child should be set up to fail because of the circumstances they were born into.

That dream lives on in every child care center that feeds children breakfast before circle time, that connects struggling parents to resources, and that sees the whole child—not just a student, but a human being. That is Black history at work.

Betsey Stockton — The Freedwoman Who Built Schools Across the World

Born into slavery in the early 1800s, Betsey Stockton was eventually freed and went on to establish schools for children on three continents—in Hawaii, Canada, and across the eastern United States. She taught Hawaiian children, Aboriginal children, and Black children in Philadelphia and Princeton, New Jersey, where she dedicated 30 years to educating Black families.

A formerly enslaved woman built early childhood classrooms before the field even had a name. Let that sit with you.

Dr. Evangeline Ward — The Conscience of Early Childhood Ethics

Dr. Ward was a professor at Temple University who authored one of the first codes of ethics for early childhood professionals. She argued that children should be treated as individuals, that educators should be lifelong learners, and that teachers and families should work as partners. Sound familiar? These ideas form the backbone of how quality child care centers operate today. A Black woman wrote the rulebook—literally.

Why This Matters Inside Your Child’s Daycare Right Now

Here’s the part that hits home for every parent reading this.

Research shows that children as young as six months notice differences in skin color. By age two and three, they are forming ideas about identity, fairness, and belonging. These are not abstract concepts to toddlers—they’re lived experiences. Who they see in their books, on their classroom walls, in the songs they sing, and in the stories their teachers tell shapes who they believe they can become.

When a childcare center intentionally weaves Black history into its programming, it’s not just checking a February box. It’s building children who have empathy, cultural pride, and the social-emotional skills to navigate a diverse world. It’s telling every Black child in that classroom: You come from greatness. And it’s telling every non-Black child: Respect and appreciation for others is part of who we are here.

This is not politics. This is child development. And it’s backed by decades of research—research that Black scholars pioneered.

What We’re Doing at Kidding Around — And What to Look For at Your Center

At Kidding Around Child Care Center in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Black History Month isn’t a one-day activity or a coloring sheet. It’s woven into our curriculum, our classroom libraries, our music selections, and our conversations with children all month long—and honestly, all year round.

We teach our children about the people who made their care possible. We read books that reflect diverse families. We play music by Black artists. We have age-appropriate conversations about courage, community, and caring for one another. We teach emotional intelligence—because Dr. Clark showed us that a child’s self-image starts forming long before kindergarten.

If you’re a parent evaluating childcare options, here’s what I’d encourage you to ask:

•  Does the classroom library include books by and about people of color?

•  Are cultural celebrations integrated into the curriculum throughout the year, not just in February?

•  Are the dolls, puzzles, and materials in the classroom diverse in skin tone and representation?

•  Does the center teach social-emotional learning in ways that honor every child’s identity?

•  How does the center handle conversations about differences with young children?

These aren’t trick questions. They’re standards. And any center that’s truly committed to quality care should welcome them.

100 Years of Remembering—Now It’s Our Turn

This year’s theme—A Century of Black History Commemorations—carries a weight that every childcare provider should feel. For 100 years, the Black community has fought to ensure that its contributions, its brilliance, and its pain are not erased from the American story. In a time when book bans are increasing and efforts to remove Black history from school curricula are making national headlines, what happens in early childhood education matters more than ever.

If we don’t start in the daycare classroom, where do we start?

The women and men who built this field didn’t wait for permission. Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark didn’t wait for existing agencies to serve Harlem’s children—she opened her own center with a loan from her father. Dr. Edmund Gordon didn’t wait for someone else to design Head Start—he brought the vision. Betsey Stockton didn’t wait for freedom to dream about educating children—she taught on three continents despite every odd against her.

As a Black woman who owns and operates a childcare center that serves families seven days a week—including families with non-traditional work schedules who are often overlooked—I carry that same spirit. This work is personal. This work is historical. And this work is holy.

The Call to Action

Whether you’re a parent, a fellow childcare provider, an educator, or a community member—here’s what I’m asking you to do this Black History Month:

Learn the names. Mamie Phipps Clark, Edmund Gordon, Betsey Stockton, Evangeline Ward—these are the architects of your child’s early education. Know them.

Ask the questions. Demand that your childcare center reflects the diversity of the world your child lives in. Representation is not a luxury—it’s a developmental necessity.

Share this post. Knowledge only has power when it moves. If this resonated with you, pass it on to another parent, share it in your mommy group, post it on your feed. Let’s make sure these stories reach the people who need to hear them.

Support Black-owned childcare centers. We are continuing a legacy that is 100 years deep. Your enrollment, your referral, your word of mouth—it all matters.

Make it year-round. Black history didn’t start in February and it doesn’t end on March 1st. Advocate for inclusive education every single month.

“Before there were lesson plans, there was love.

Before there were licensing requirements, there was sacrifice.

Before there were classrooms, there were Black women raising the village.

And we are still here.”

Kidding Around Child Care Center

Open 7 Days a Week  |  7 AM – 11 PM  |  Hendersonville, TN

Serving Families With Non-Traditional Schedules

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