Former students started Mattie Miller campaign

When Mattie Miller first became an educator, all she wanted to do was teach.

“We go into the classroom as teachers, we don’t go to ‘impact students’ or ‘make a name for ourselves,’” Miller said. “I just needed the name on my classroom door.”

In 1959, Miller became the first black, female teacher in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. to be sent to teach at an all-white school — Harper Elementary School. She had one goal, to provide her students with the best education possible.

Now, 45 years later, a group of her earliest pupils started a campaign on Aug. 1, to name the Harper Elementary School auditorium in honor of Miller’s ability to resonate with students both in and out of the classroom.

Ann Burnworth, a Chief Development Officer with EVSC, said the campaign will not only rename the auditorium, but will raise funds to benefit Harper Elementary School’s reading program and library services.

"We do these namings so that we can recognize outstanding EVSC educators,” Burnworth said. “(Miller) is the epitome of everything that is fantastic about public education and she paved the way for many other quality educators in our region.”

At the helm of campaign are Mattie Miller Committee members Brent Beeler, Becky Dumes, Pat Shoulders and Jon Siau — her former students — as well as members of the EVSC Foundation and Office of Development. The goal is to raise a minimum of $20,000.

Miller’s impact

Jon Siau was in one of Miller’s first classes at Harper but was more interested in drawing than reading.

After Miller assigned the class to read Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Siau chose to accompany the assignment with an illustration of Ichabod Crane.

“To me, the other skills that students have may not always be within the realm of what a teacher is teaching, but we have to capitalize on what they like,” she said.

It was that year Siau decided he wanted to become an art teacher. And today, North High School’s art gallery is named in Siau’s honor, commemorating his 42 years as an art educator.

“(Miller) knew her subject matter. She presented it in a manner in which it was interesting and you wanted to listen to what she said next,” Siau said. “She was on top of her game, even as a young teacher, and she cared about you.”

Siau said many of Miller’s former students entered into successful careers.

“There’s a cross section of occupations, we (Miller’s students) didn’t all go into English,” he said. “But you know what, by far and away the occupation that most of our class went into? Teaching.”

Although Miller admitted she doesn’t know what she taught that was “so important,” she said she is elated to see that her students have held on to her teachings.

“I am overwhelmed and blessed to have students this age caring about their old elementary school teacher,” Miller said.

A legacy of education

Acceptance was one of the biggest challenges Miller had to overcome in her first years at Harper.

Miller said when she was hired on, she was told, “If you fail, we will never hire another Negro teacher.”

Her first class held 40 students, and she was 21.

“I never thought about how I was the first black person with whom they’d talked. I never thought about failing,” Miller said. “I thought about teaching.”

She knew she would have to work hard to be accepted, and that her relationship with the faculty wasn’t great, but she only cared about her relationship with her students.

"The students didn’t care who taught them as long as you did what you were supposed to do, and that was what I focused on — the students,” she said.

A lesson learned

She faced many challenges in those early years but wanted to be sure she made the best of each situation.

Still new to the teaching world, Miller saw the word “nigger” on the window. She knew there was only one student it could be and she called him back to the classroom.

As a way to help him understand the weight of the word, she had him repeat it to her starting softly and increasing until he was shouting it.

“Tears filled his eyes, and then tears filled my eyes, and I said, ‘Thank you so much. Now its out of your system.’ And that was the end of it,” she said. “I didn’t want him to go through life saying that.”

A few years ago, that student came to visit her with his children telling her he wanted them to see the “best teacher he’s ever had,” Miller said he told her.

Burnworth said the auditorium will commemorate Miller’s legacy and how she single-handedly desegregated a neighborhood school through strength of character, teaching excellence and her grace and charm.

“(Miller) is a legend to everybody but (Miller), and I think that’s what is so incredibly special about her and sets her apart from the rest of us,” Burnworth said. “She doesn’t have any idea of the impact she’s had on young people.”

To donate to The Mattie Miller Campaign, visit evscfoundation.org/give-today or mail to the EVSC Foundation, attention Mattie Miller Campaign at 951 Walnut St., Evansville, IN, 47713.