Opening Doors and Minds: Honoring Denver's 1st Tenured Black Teacher

For the entire month of February, NBC will showcase essays about Black Americans who pioneered change in United States history during the Civil Rights Movement that led to nationwide desegregation. Pioneers include those who led local efforts to desegregate schools, professionals who forged ahead to become luminaries within their industries, and advocates who stoked the wave of change head-on in the nation's bid for racial justice and equality.

Marie L. Greenwood, Denver's 1st Tenured Black Teacher

Marie Greenwood, standing in front of the elementary school named in her honor.

Teachers come in all colors — dedicated teachers, prepared teachers — and it had nothing to do with the color of [their] skin if they could do the job. And I proved that.

Marie Greenwood

With a lifetime spanning 106 years, the late Marie L. Greenwood was full of stories — memories of marrying William, the love of her life; adventures raising four children; love for the music of a young Nat King Cole; and her journey to desegregate public schools in Denver.

"I never even thought about being a pioneer or a trailblazer, but that’s what I was called," explained Greenwood in a 2017 interview. In 1938, Greenwood made history by becoming Denver’s first tenured Black teacher, an accomplishment she says did not come easily.

Her first encounters with schoolteachers — and racial segregation in schools — occurred while attending public, predominately Black elementary and high schools leading up to and during the Great Depression.

While discrimination in schools placed many restrictions on children that looked like Greenwood, her parents instilled in her a belief that education has the power to meaningfully change one’s outlook on, and standing in, life. She recalled, "They wanted me to have an education so that I did not have to do the menial, hard work that they were doing. … And the only way I could do it was to always do my level best." Greenwood did not simply take this message to heart; she adopted it as her credo, trusting she could make a difference for countless fellow youth as an educator.

Marie Greenwood talks about her experiences as a Black student in Denver, and how she fought against the systemic racism of the times due to her parents' upbringing.

Greenwood was pursuing a bachelor’s in kindergarten-primary education in 1935, with the goal of becoming a teacher. Scant diversity and disparity among teaching staffs were apparent. People of color were assigned substitute teaching roles and low-level administrative work. Most troublingly, her ambitions were often brushed off or evoked derisive laughter.

Greenwood was not discouraged. Sensing winds of change in the Mile High City, she took action: "I took the [teaching] test, and to my amazement, I was selected as … [a teacher] of color in the Denver Public Schools."

It was the culmination of years of sacrifice, and Greenwood was thrilled. But she was also aware that the offer to become a first-grade teacher was entry level. An opportunity for tenure — job security and the highest accolade for teachers — might never come.

Nonetheless, Greenwood knew that accepting the job would mean achieving a personal goal, and much more.

"I had to keep that door open for other minorities to come in," Greenwood said of her motivation to accept the job. Fully aware of the long-range academic and social challenges to becoming a teacher, she hoped her success would motivate other teachers of color and challenge any detractors.

"All I heard all my life [from my parents] was that, ‘no matter what, you’re as good as anybody else. … With hard work, you could make it,’" Greenwood reflected. But for a Black teenage girl growing up in 1920s Colorado, "making it" was subjective — and to her academic advisor at Denver’s East High School, expectations were minimal.

"I was the only brown freshman in the whole class,” Greenwood recalled. “The girls’ advisor … was checking on the freshmen to see if they were planning to go to college. I said, ‘well I am planning to go to college.’ She looked up at me as though to say, ‘you must have lost your mind.’

"She informed me that if I went to college, ‘my father would be just losing money because all I could ever do would be to work in somebody’s house.’

"I just said, ‘I’m going to college,’ and I walked out."

It was this interaction that motivated Greenwood to attain "a GPA so high" that she was awarded a scholarship to the Colorado State College of Education to earn her bachelor’s. "And," Greenwood said, "we all know what the result was."

Marie Greenwood talks about her experiences desegregating Denver public schools as the first Black tenured teacher in the school system, and how she opened the doors for other Black teachers to succeed.

After completing college, and accepting the first-grade teaching job at Denver’s Whittier School, Greenwood would become the first Black teacher to achieve permanent tenure in Denver Public Schools — in just three years.

"Teachers come in all colors — dedicated teachers, prepared teachers — and it had nothing to do with the color of [their] skin if they could do the job. And I proved that," Greenwood reflected.

The doors had opened for Greenwood, and soon after, the school board hired more Black teachers in Denver’s public schools.

Greenwood’s commitment to education and to dismantling racial barriers was recognized again by Denver Public Schools in 2001. Instead of a new teaching position, she was offered a school named in her honor: Marie L. Greenwood Elementary, known today as Marie L. Greenwood Academy. She reflected: "To have lived this long and have that kind of recognition ... just feels so good. ... I never dreamed anything like this could possibly happen to me."

I never even thought about being a pioneer or a trailblazer, but that’s what I was called.

Marie Greenwood

For decades following Greenwood’s retirement, her passion for teaching young minds remained evident. Students, parents and staff frequently visited Greenwood in an independent living facility, where she delighted in catching up on the latest news from the school. "It’s just such a blessing that anyone from my school thinks enough of me to keep in touch and let me know what’s going on," she said.

And, it was not a visit to Mrs. Greenwood’s without story time. Reading to the children — even past age 100 — is what she enjoyed most.

Reading to the children was her platform to connect with, teach and impact young people — and relay her standard high expectations. "[Children today] need to know about those of us who worked and kept going," she said. "They have to learn, nothing is free."

"Always be your best," she said. "Even if you’re digging ditches, you dig the best ditch."

Marie Greenwood, center.

Comcast NBCUniversal’s Voices of the Civil Rights Movement platform honors the legacy and impact of America’s civil rights champions. Watch more than 17 hours of firsthand accounts and historical moments, online and on Xfinity On Demand.

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