Margaret Just Butcher facts for kids

Margaret Just Butcher (born April 28, 1913 – died February 7, 2000) was an American teacher and a strong supporter of civil rights. She taught English at Howard University and Federal City College. She also spent many years teaching in other countries.

In the 1950s, she was a Fulbright Visiting Professor in France. Later, in the early 1960s, she taught in Morocco. She also worked as a cultural affairs expert in Paris before returning to Washington, D.C. in 1968.

Starting in 1953, Butcher served on Washington D.C.'s Board of Education. She worked with the NAACP to end segregation in public schools. After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, which said school segregation was illegal, she pushed city leaders to quickly integrate the schools.

Butcher is also known for her work with Alain Locke, a philosopher and cultural leader who was her mentor at Howard University. They became friends, and she helped care for him when he was sick. After his death, she used his notes and their discussions to finish and edit his book, The Negro in American Culture, which was published in 1956.

Early Life and Education

Margaret Just was born in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 1913. Her parents were well-educated. Her father was the biologist Ernest Everett Just, and her mother, Ethel Highwarden, was a teacher. Margaret received the best schooling available in her area. In 1927, she even studied in Italy with her father. She earned her Ph.D. in 1947 from Boston University.

Career Highlights

As an Educator

Margaret Just worked as an English professor at Virginia Union during the 1935-1936 school year. From 1937 to 1941, she taught in public schools in Washington, D.C. In 1941, she was chosen as a Rosenwald Fellow, which is a special scholarship.

Starting in 1942, she taught at Howard University. There, she became a colleague and friend of professor Alain Locke.

In 1950, after getting married, Butcher traveled to Europe as a Fulbright Visiting Professor. She was the first woman to be a visiting professor in this program. In France, she taught at the University of Grenoble and the University of Lyon. She also helped interview other Fulbright candidates. After returning to Washington, she taught at Howard until 1955.

From 1960 to 1965, Butcher taught overseas again. She taught English and American culture in Rabat, Morocco. She also directed the English Language Training Institute in Casablanca, Morocco. In the 1960s, she worked as a "cultural affairs attache" in Paris, which meant she helped promote American culture. She returned to Washington in 1968.

After coming back to the capital, she taught at Federal City College from 1971 to 1982.

Civil Rights Work

Butcher was a strong supporter of civil rights. In 1953, she was appointed to the Washington D.C. Board of Education. The Pittsburgh Courier newspaper praised her "militant" (meaning very determined) way of fighting segregation in public schools.

Butcher found many differences between schools for white and black students. She pointed out how unfair the classrooms were. From 1954 to 1955, she worked with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She was a special education consultant for their lawsuit against school segregation.

After the Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were against the law, Butcher warned that more fights against discrimination were ahead for black people in America. The superintendent of Washington D.C. schools, Hobart M. Corning, wanted to integrate schools slowly. Butcher strongly disagreed with this slow approach. A group that supported white nationalism even called for her to resign from the board.

Butcher was open about her work with the NAACP. She publicly criticized Corning's plan to delay integration in Washington schools. She spoke about school integration plans for the NAACP at a meeting in Newport News, Virginia, in 1954. In 1955, Butcher continued to speak out against slow integration. She said that Washington schools were still mostly segregated and that waiting would not help. The New York Age newspaper called her a "constant thorn in the side of the Washington, D.C. school board" because she kept challenging them. She stayed on the board until 1956.

The Lambda Kappa Mu sorority honored Butcher in 1954 for her fight against segregation.

Political Involvement

In 1952, Butcher was appointed to the National Civil Defense Advisory Council. She took over from Mary McLeod Bethune, who retired due to health reasons.

Butcher also served as a delegate from the District of Columbia at the Democratic National Convention in both 1956 and 1960. This meant she represented her area at the big meeting where the Democratic Party chose its presidential candidate.

The Negro in American Culture

Butcher wrote The Negro in American Culture. This book was based on the notes of her mentor and friend, Alain Locke, and continued his important work. When Locke became ill, Butcher helped care for him. She visited him daily, prepared meals, and took him to the hospital. After Locke passed away, Butcher used the notes he left for her and finished his book. It was published in 1956, updated in 1971, and translated into 11 different languages.

Personal Life

Butcher was briefly married to Stanton Wormley. They had a daughter named Sheryl Everett Wormley before they divorced.

Around 1949, Just Wormley married James W. Butcher, Jr., who was a drama professor at Howard University. In 1959, she sought a divorce from her husband but kept his last name. Her daughter, Everett Wormley, later held an important science position.

Margaret Just Butcher died on February 7, 2000.