Tribute to Nina Honemond Clarke

Tribute to Nina Honemond Clarke. November 13, 1917 - March 4, 2921 , Teacher, Activist, Historian, Author, Lecturer, Humanitarian. , She was born in Poolesville on November 13, 1917, grew up in Dickerson, graduated from Rockville Colored High School in 1934, and received her first degree in elementary education from Hampton Institute in 1942. Her thirst for higher education led her to earn the master's from Boston University, and postgraduate training at several other universities., The granddaughter of enslaved families overcame the challenges and barriers of discrimination and segregation to earn that position as the supreme early education teacher in Montgomery County. She led an extraordinary life, teaching in her teens to near the last days of her life at 103 years. Her teaching career was developed in the Black-only elementary schools until 1954, after which time Nina Clarke along with Allison Claggett, was among the first to teach white children in the Montgomery County Public Schools. Her life experience and insights incorporated into her teaching curriculum accounted for her success as a teacher, and the Board of education named her the first black teacher specialist in reading and language arts. She retired in 1973 after 36 years of dedicated service in the MCPS system., In her post-retirement years, she was engaged in study on the history of black education and the county public education system, leading to a co-authored book (1978) titled "A History of the Black Public Schools of Montgomery County, Maryland 1872-1961," and authoring "A History of the 19th Century Black Churches in Maryland and the District of Columbia" (1983)., She has received many accolades in a lifetime of 103 years, none truer than the Montgomery County Lifetime Achievement in Heritage Education, for leadership and contributions to the study of oral and written histories in the county.