"Barbara Sizemore"December 17 1927- 19??"

Was the first African American woman to head the public school system in a major city.She dedicated her career to educating the nation's children and young adults.Born Barbara Laffoon to Sylvester Walter Laffoon and Delila Alexander in Chicago, Illinois, she spent her childhood in Terre Haute Indiana, where she was a student at Booker T. Washington Elementary School.Her father died when she was eight years old and her mother later remarried a man named Aldwin E. Stewart. Barbara graduated from Wiley High School and pursued a bachelor of arts degree in classical languages at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.She earned her BA in 1947 and worked as a teacher in the Chicago public school system for several years before going on to pursue an MA in Elementary Education which she earned in 1954.After she had receive her master's degree, Barbara continued to teach English, Latin, and English for Spanish speakers in the Chicago school system until 1963,when she was appointed principal of Anton Dvorak Elementary.She was one of the first black women to be appointed Principal of a Chicago school.Two years later,she left Anton Dvorak and accepted a position as principal of Forestville High School.In 1967,she became director of the Woodlawn