Phoebe Wyncote’s Genester Nix on Carving Her Path as a Black Teacher
“During the interview, she said to me, ‘You know you’ll be teaching white children, right?’ I said, ‘Oh? Is there a difference?’ And [the superintendent] said, ‘Well, no, but I just wanted you to know that.’”
That was the moment Genester Nix Miller, a current resident of Phoebe Wyncote, remembered she had a photo of her previous class from Jarrettown Elementary School in Upper Dublin handy. The picture revealed a group of white students smiling happily alongside their teacher, Nix, a young black woman.
When she flashed the photo to the superintendent who had been conducting her interview, the response was a simple, “Oh, you’ll be okay.”
The hurdle of race was an omnipresent force throughout Nix’s life, as it so often is for people of color growing up in the United States. Even though her journey to become a teacher ended in success, the subject of Nix’s identity could always be felt as a weight on her shoulders. Her 30-year teaching career is a testament to her resilience and passion for education despite the judgmental eyes.
Nix’s early life growing up in the 1930s and 40s was one of constant motion. Her father, a traveling minister tasked with building up churches, kept the family on the go. Working everywhere, from Chicago to Pittsburgh to Cleveland, her father raised money and interest for numerous religious communities. As a result, Nix found herself having to adapt to multiple school settings throughout her childhood.
Racial segregation often defined the social status quo during Nix’s grade-school years. Very few black students were accepted into the schools she attended. When they were, they were largely kept separate from the white students.
When class pictures were taken, Nix and her fellow black classmates remained purposefully uninformed by the school to maintain an outside image of “whiteness.” Black students were routinely excluded from school activities.
Nix kept her head down and focused on her studies, excelling academically for virtually her entire educational career. She won American Legion awards, medals that signified a student’s courage and scholarly ability, in both 5th and 6th grade.
She developed an early passion for writing, which she partially attributes to her father’s work in researching churches and her mother’s secretary job. Nix would often write poetry that reflected her current situation.
“I became a little despondent about growing up. It seemed like I ran into segregation in everything I tried to do,” said Nix. Poetry became a way for her to cope with the outside world and its volatile tendencies towards black women. Writing poetry was akin to writing in a diary for Nix. Later in life, she was able to complete an autobiography.
In addition to her love of writing, Nix found a home in her high school orchestra. Despite being the only black student in the ensemble, she found it was the only activity that wasn’t met with resistance because of her race.
Outside of school, church took up the bulk of Nix’s time. Sundays were dedicated entirely to church with Sunday school in the morning, both a morning and afternoon service, and the day would end with The Baptist Young People’s Union—although that last one was more a source of community fun that allowed for Nix to create relationships with her peers. On Wednesdays she had prayer meetings and on Tuesdays she had Bible school.
As a child, Nix entertained herself with cards, dominos, checkers, and going to the movies. Her father also taught her various tabletop games.
When it came time to apply for college scholarships, Nix suspects that, despite her sparkling academic record, her race kept her from ever receiving any.
Luck struck when she was contacted directly by the president of a university in West Virginia. Her parents quickly jumped at the opportunity to get their child into higher education, but the school ended up being a bad experience for Nix.
“The mice took charge of our dormitory,” said Nix. She wrote home asking her parents to pull her out, and she eventually left West Virginia.
With the hopes of finding a more welcoming environment, Nix applied to Morgan State University, a Historically Black Research University in Baltimore, Maryland, and was accepted.
“I felt right at home,” said Nix. Finally, she had landed in an environment where she could learn alongside students who looked like her. This was hugely beneficial for Nix, as she often felt like a loner growing up. For the first time, she felt comfortable looking at those around her.
While at Morgan State, Nix’s social life flourished. She learned to dance, play cards, and was introduced to alcohol.
“I couldn’t drink very much, of course,” she joked. Her mother had raised her with an iron fist, and Nix faced a social learning curve when it came to college life.
To make money on the side to pay for her tuition, Nix would charge students ten cents a page to edit college papers on her typewriter from the comfort of her dorm.
“At that time, there were five children in my family, and my father was only making $40 a week. My mother didn’t work. Money was kind of scarce. I did pretty well!” she laughed.
Nix joined a college sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), which helped bolster her presence at the school. She has since received Diamond Sorority Recognition for her over 75 years of service to AKA.
After graduating from Morgan State in 1949, having received the President’s Resolution for Pioneering Achievement Award, Nix got her Master’s Degree in Education from Temple University. She would then become the first black teacher at Jarrettown Elementary.
“I loved that class, and they loved me. At recess time, I went out and jumped rope with them,” said Nix. She was inundated with Christmas gifts from her students during the holidays.
When Nix saw a plea in the newspaper from a school in the Centennial District in Philly for a black schoolteacher, the principal of Jarrettown Elementary gave her a glowing recommendation. She taught at Centennial until she retired.
Nix was and remains an independent woman. When it came time for her to consider retirement, She turned to Phoebe to lessen her dependency on her kids.
There were some criteria when it came to finding the right home: it had to be culturally diverse, near her friends and church, and it had to be, in her own words, “a place that was kind.”
Nix toured Phoebe Wyncote with a few of her friends and family and, with the approval of her loved ones, ultimately decided that it was the place she wanted to be — it checked all the boxes.
Phoebe Wyncote gave Nix the peace of mind she was looking for, offering a full continuum of care that could adapt to Nix’s needs if they should change. Today, she is happy to call Phoebe her home just as Phoebe is thrilled to have incredible residents like Nix. To learn more about Phoebe Wyncote, please visit phoebe.org/wyncote.
