People, Locations, Episodes

Sun, 03.11.190011

Vivian Marbury, Educator born.

Vivian Marbury

*Vivian Marbury was born on this date in 1900. She was a Black teacher and sorority administrator.

Born in Oxford, Butler County, Ohio, Vivian Irene White attended Abram C. Shortridge High School and the Indianapolis Normal School (teachers prep school). White received a B.S. from Butler University and a master’s from Columbia University in New York City. In 1922, she and colleagues formed an organization of teachers dedicated to bettering the profession. Still, it quickly broadened its scope to become more involved with young women, youth and the furthering of their education.

According to the story in the news, isolation, and alienation led the students to form the first Black Sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho, on a predominately White University campus, which had grown back then from seven to over 70,000 since its founding. She taught in the Indianapolis school system for nine years. She married in 1929 and is the mother of two children.

Her professional career included teaching at Morehouse College in Atlanta as director of Practice Training of teachers from Butler University, Indianapolis University, and Indianapolis State University. Marbury organized Public School 87, which grew from a 4-room portable school to 18 rooms and 24 teachers, where she was principal for 39 years until her retirement in 1967. Vivian Irene White Marbury died on July 29, 2000 (aged 100) in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.

To Become an Elementary School Teacher
To Become a Middle School Teacher
To become a High School Teacher

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