Jessie Mae Reasor Zander

2013 C. H. Shorter Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Jessie Mae Reasor Zander

Jessie Mae Reasor Zander was born and raised in Appalachia, VA, nurtured by her grandmother, Cherrie Reasor. She attended the one-room school of Macedonia Baptist Church during her first three years of school, then was bused to the “colored” elementary school in Big Stone Gap, VA for 4th – 7th grades. She graduated from Central High School in 1949 with honors and was Salutatorian of her senior class. With scholarship help, she attended Swift Memorial Junior College in Rogersville, TN, then transferred to Berea College in Berea, KY where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education in 1954. She was the first Black American to graduate from a Kentucky college after the repeal of the Kentucky Day Law in 1950.

Jessie married her hometown sweetheart, Johnny W. Zander, December 20, 1954, in the middle of her first year of employment in the coal mining area of Benham, KY. When integration closed Johnny’s school, Swift Memorial Junior College, they loaded up their green/white Chevrolet with clothes, books, red plastic radio and ice chest, and migrated cross-country to the Presbyterian church’s Tucson Indian Training School at 802 W. Ajo Way.

Jessie’s 30 year career with the Tucson Unified School District, spanned 1959-1989. In conjunction with her teaching, she continued her education at the University of Arizona where she earned her M.ED in Elementary Education (1966), M.ED in Guidance and Counseling (1976), followed by a Supervisory and Administration Certification (1978). She served as counselor with the Special Education Department, as an Art Helping Teacher for In-Service programs, and as principal of three Schools in the Tucson Unified School District.

She served in many capacities including chairperson for the construction of a valuation tool for teacher accountability (1974), co-creator of Traveling Cultural Awareness Kitsundefined The Five Colors They Call People (1975), coordinated Junior/ Senior High poetry contests with the Tucson Poetry Society (1973-1988), student teacher advisor and Practicum Stu- dent Supervisor for counseling students, Co-director Catali- na Tutoring Program (1982-84), and T.E.A Human Relations Committee and President Council of Black Educators (1975 - 78).

She held numerous professional memberships and community service and board positions such as Chairperson for St. Mark’s Mission Focus on Race and the Justice Program, Funeral Consumers Alliance of Southern Arizona Speakers Bureau, Coordinator Arizona/Berea Alumni meetings, and supporter of the African American Read-In, and several other organizations.

Following Johnny’s death and her retirement in 1989, Jessie reconnected with the hills of Virginia and Kentucky by documenting a traveling exhibit of Black Churches for the African American Cultural Center, Pennington Gap, VA (1994-1996); serving as Consultant to Southwest Virginia Museum for Exhibition of Early African American Schools 1920-1960 (July-October 1999), Visiting professor, Brea College Department of Education Spring term (1991). For three successive summers, she served as Education Consultant for the Carter G. Woodson Institute and served on Berea’s President’s Council and the Alumni Association.

Her travels have taken her to Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Israel, Ghana, Italy, and South Africa twice to study the Truth and Reconciliation process and again as part of a “blitz” building in a village outside Capetown.

She has distinguished herself as a poet receiving many awards including Arizona State Poetry Award (1977), AKA Regional Poetry Award (1985). Other awards received include Berea College Service Award (1992), Berea College Alumni Loyalty Award (1991), Carter G. Woodson Award, St. Mark’s 2000 Women on the Move Nomination (1990 & 2001), University of Arizona Black Alumni Phenomenal Woman Award (2002), YWCA 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jessie’s poetry has been published in the Appalachia Independent News, Pen Women and the Arizona Sun.

Jessie’s greatest desire now is to write as much of the family history as can be collected for her nieces and nephews.