To Help Black Teachers Thrive, Remove Outside Barriers 

The non-profit Educate ME is providing aspiring teachers with financial assistance and mentorship to increase the Black teacher pipeline. In the Black community, from the time of enslaved ancestors to the founding of HBCUs, it’s a truism: Black teachers have been beacons of education, hope, and freedom.& Yet Black educators as a whole make up just 7% of the nation’s teaching workforce, with Black men taking up fewer than 2% of the space.& To address the lack of diversity among teachers — and fulfill the legacy of Black educators — Blake Nathan, a former teacher, created the ME Foundation, a nonprofit set up specifically to train, support, and increase the number of& Black teachers in classrooms.& Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Educate Me is helping to create educational equity through removing financial barriers for prospective Black educators. It helps them pay for college through scholarships, gives entry-level teachers assistance with housing, and provides classroom grants to help teachers pay for materials, and more.  Nathan, the organization’s CEO, was inspired by his own lived experience. When he started out in 2013 as a middle school teacher in the Midwest, he was the only Black male teacher in his entire school for almost...