BUFFALO, N.Y. — In the pursuit of education, barriers are often broken.

“Education was always part of her life,” said Barbara Seals Nevergold, a co-founder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute about Ida Fairbush.

Learning was always a cornerstone for Fairbush.

“She was very bright,” said Seals Nevergold. “In 1884, she won a silver Jesse Ketchum Award. So that means she was a very good student.”

Growing up in the 1800s in a working-class family, opportunities were limited for Fairbush. But she was surrounded by people fighting for better.

“They went to Bethel A.M.E. church. [Her father] was engaged in the movement to integrate the schools. He was engaged in the movement to help freedom seekers or others to get to the promised land,” explained Seals Nevergold.

So why shouldn’t Fairbush aim for new ground, too?

“She went to go to Wilberforce University, one of the first historically Black colleges and universities in the nation,” said Seals Nevergold.

She was blazing a trail with her community’s support. Mentors nurtured and protected her from Buffalo to Ohio, with updates on her printed in local Black newspapers.

As she excelled in her studies – testing 23rd out of 90 in the teacher’s exam – the community pushed for more.

“When they integrated the schools in 1872, they did not invite any of those teachers from the African school,” said Seals Nevergold. “For the African American community to face rejection basically over and over and over again, of course, it took a great deal of persistence to continue.”

But mix an excellent teaching candidate with the right timing and a little bit of politicking, and you have history.

“Supposedly, the two African American groups — political groups — promised to support and endorse Mr. Emerson as the superintendent if he would hire an African American teacher,“ said Seals Nevergold.

In 1897, Fairbush became the first African American teacher in Buffalo Public Schools.

“She was the example,” noted Seals Nevergold. “That also speaks to the high value that African Americans hold for education. Certainly, during enslavement, learning to read was punishable by death. And yet there are people who risk that.”

While Fairbush likely never taught African American students — her school was in a mostly German or Italian immigrant community — her experience opened the doors for others.

“There were two or three teachers after Ida was hired, fairly soon after, within a few years. But she was the groundbreaker,” said Seals Nevergold.

Her story speaks to a different time, but one whose lessons are the same.

“If you advance the individual, the race [and] the community benefits as a result,” said Seals Nevergold. “That continues to this day.”