Recently, Dr. Pamela Pugh, a Black woman, was sworn in as the new president of the State Board of Education of Michigan. The ceremony capped a notable election season for Michigan Democrats, who are celebrating several historic victories that secured Democratic control of the governorship and both chambers of the State Legislature. Dr. Pugh’s election follows other historic electoral victories in Michigan this November, as Kyra Harris Bolden became the first Black female Justice in the state’s Supreme Court. The state also elected its first Black Speaker of the House, Joseph Tate.
Pugh received her Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Florida A&M University, an HBCU. She earned her doctorate in public health and Master of Science from the University of Michigan and was first elected to the statewide-elected Board of Education in 2014. This past election cycle, Michigan voters elected her to a second eight-year term with well over 2M votes, making her, again, the highest vote-getter on the state’s ballot.
Michigan is unique in that its State Board of Education is elected every even-numbered year. The Board is responsible for appointing the state’s superintendent of public instruction, who is responsible for the leadership and general supervision over K-12 public education in Michigan.
Pugh comes from a long line of Mississippians who recognized education as a necessary sacrifice. Her great-grandfather, alongside the community and local church, started the one-room Pugh Elementary, named after its founder, to ensure Black children had educational opportunities denied to them because of their skin color. Pugh’s paternal grandmother was one of the first Head Start teachers in Clarke County, Mississippi, and her father, John Pugh, a Civil Rights activist, taught for over 32 years at a local college where he was an administrator. Pugh’s late mother, Carolyn Pugh, was a paraprofessional for Saginaw Public School District, the school system that she attended.
“It’s in my DNA,” Pugh said. “I have parents, ancestors, and a village who have sacrificed so much for me. This added to the unfortunate daily reminders that the fight for all children to have access to an equitable and adequate education is just as critical now as it was in the post-civil war era when it became lawful for Blacks to own books, to read, to get an education.”
During her previous term, Pugh made headlines when she sided with Detroit students who claimed they were denied their right to literacy. Through her capacity as an Education Board member, she was nominally a defendant in the historic Detroit Right to Literacy case, yet she supported the seven minority plaintiffs’ claims. Her reputation as a civil rights fighter was bolstered in her tenure as Flint’s Chief Public Health Advisor during its infamous water crisis.
Following in the footsteps of the first Black woman in Michigan elected to statewide office and to serve as President of the Board, Dr. Barbara Roberts Mason, recognizes the enormity of this moment in education, and says that she’s up for the great task ahead of her: “In addition to Michigan being victim to the politization of education as seen across the country, the state has long been ranked at the bottom of all 50 states in terms of equitable funding, impacting children most in need and their educators. We are grateful for Governor Whitmer’s historical budget passed just in July but there is still much work to do to close the learning gaps caused by the decades of dismantling of our public education system. Now, we have before us a great opportunity to adequately fund our schools, repeal harmful policies especially those shown to most impact Black children and ensure that teachers have the freedom to teach, and to make sure that all children regardless of race, religion, or gender identity have safe and welcoming learning environments. This is a new day and I look forward to working with our Governor and Democratically led legislature.”
