I am not a hero.
Unfortunately, this revelation wasn’t born from introspection but forced upon me through an unexpected reality check. Believe me, there was a point in time where I was convinced that I could play the role of the knight in shining armor, rescuing the damsel in distress or scaling a tree to save a stranded cat.
But when I was actually presented with a moment, the outcome was very different.
It’s the summer of 2020, and like most of us at that time I am overcome with a mix of emotions in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I’m cycling through moments of pain, anger and a desire to be part of something that creates a better society by the hour.
On May 31, I catch word about a protest taking place and I go. It was the largest gathering of people I had ever been a part of. The atmosphere was charged with a shared commitment to justice. However, my emotions took an unexpected turn when our route led us from University Avenue to the ramp of I-35 North.
Standing on an expressway for the first time was an eerie experience. The space is much larger than it appears from a car, and even the ground felt much different than standard pavement.
I was uneasy.
We took a knee on I-35 N, and that’s when the moment appeared. I’ll never forget the sound of a semi-truck barreling toward us. I ran for safety, heading to the median to cross over to the I-35 S side. When I got to the median, I was confronted with a 10-foot gap between the I-35 N and S. Stranded along the median, I watched in fear as the truck continued toward us.
I remember looking back and seeing people still in the way and I feared for them. But as the truck came closer, I witnessed people transition from individuals to heroes. Immediately they sprang into action. Some people jumped on top of the truck, others threw their bikes, while some grabbed people and moved them out of the path of the semi.
What I saw was a group of strangers take immediate, collective action to address what felt like an imminent threat. In that moment those individual strangers became collective heroes.
That united response has served as an inspiration to me to this day.
And now, as the executive director of Black Men Teach, I have an opportunity to be part of a group of collective heroes facing a different threat.
On April 2, 2024, Black Men Teach will be a part of launching a Collective Impact Coalition.
The coalition’s goal is to increase the proportion of Black male elementary school teachers to 20% of the teaching staff in partnering elementary schools (schools with 40% or more Black students) by the 2034-2035 school year. There are roughly 100 elementary schools that meet our partnership criteria with over 2,200 teaching staff.
To get to there, the Collective Impact Coalition is gearing up to facilitate the recruitment, preparation, placement, and retention of over 400 Black male educators. The impact of the coalition’s efforts extends beyond the quantitative increase in Black male teachers. We aim to increase academic outcomes, foster a more affirming learning atmosphere for K-5 students, and enable school environments where Black men not only survive but thrive.
Achieving this goal will be historic. Currently, across K-12, Black men constitute less than 0.05% of teachers in the state. Even more surprising, there are fewer than 50 Black men teaching in elementary schools in Minnesota today. Achieving this goal is also not optional. The enormous gaps in the learning of our children threaten the well-being of us all. Most children in Minnesota can grow and graduate from our schools without ever having a Black male teacher. Yet if a Black student has a Black teacher the benefits are robust; they are more likely to graduate high school and to attend college, be held to higher expectations, attend school more frequently, are less likely to be perceived as excessively disruptive, less likely to be suspended, and, particularly in the case of low-income Black boys, are less likely to be referred to special education.
Addressing the scarcity of Black male teachers isn’t a challenge that BMT can tackle alone. It’s a community-level issue that has persisted without resolution, necessitating an unprecedented, united community effort to surmount. Roughly 20 organizations have walked alongside BMT every step of the process; examining data, meeting with Black male teachers, proposing solutions, and co-creating this ambitious but necessary goal and the means to achieve it.
As we prepare to embark on this historic journey, the parallels between the coalition and the protesters on I-35 become more evident to me. In both cases, the power of collective action is at the center. And it is my belief that the coalition’s collective effort will demonstrate that transformative change is not only possible but inevitable when individuals converge with a shared purpose.
Markus Flynn, a former classroom teacher, is executive director of Black Men Teach, a Minnesota-based non-profit headquartered in St. Paul. Members of the coalition include leadership from Education Minnesota, PELSB, Metro State University, the University of Minnesota, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis College, Wallin Education Partners, Great Minnesota Schools, Minneapolis Public Schools, Saint Paul Public Schools, Excell Academy for Higher Learning, Serve Minnesota, Teach for America Twin Cities and more.
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