![]() She also advised her daughters not to participate in civil rights protests because she was afraid of them getting hurt or arrested. “Once I’d seen what those Negro teenagers experienced in Little Rock, I couldn’t unsee it,” she writes of the white mob violence faced by Black students integrating into a white school in Arkansas. She describes her concerns about allowing her daughters to participate in school integration. Later chapters continue zooming out from Johnson’s own experiences to historic events. These asides slow the narrative but reveal something deeper: Johnson’s immense pride in Black educational institutions and her gratitude to the Black educators who were her role models. She frequently pivots from her story to describe her teachers’ race-based struggles and the history of the Black schools she attended or served. Johnson uses her own educational and work experiences as windows into broader issues. Her only job offer was a teaching gig at an all-Black elementary school. When she graduated in 1937 at age 18 with the highest GPA in her university’s history, Johnson had few employment opportunities. Readers quickly see the profound obstacles that faced educated Black people like Johnson. While in college at West Virginia State University, Johnson decided she wanted to become a mathematician. ![]() Even then, Johnson’s thirst for knowledge was palpable: She snuck out to follow her older siblings to school, peppered her parents and teachers with questions, and counted everything in sight. Her account begins with her childhood in small-town West Virginia.
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