This panel will focus especially on the interplay between working conditions and the professional goals of Black educators, specifically how local contexts across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as white racism and Black self-determination impacted Black teachers’ education and training, pedagogy, curriculum, professional status, and how they viewed themselves and their roles in K-12 schools. We know that Black educational traditions have led to high levels of academic achievement, community development, and social transformation through public education. Black controlled educational spaces, including classrooms and schools, are sites of political development where social justice is pursued and collective flourishing takes place.Today, scholars have demonstrated that Black teachers make a measurable difference in the educational experiences and achievements of Black youth, while creating a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable learning environment for all students. Yet Black teachers’ labor remains exploited and underappreciated, a fact that is directly related to declining percentages of Black teachers in US public schools. The goal of this panel is to take a fresh look at the incredibly diverse working conditions of Black teachers across two centuries to analyze how Black educators navigated these circumstances and remained focused on the twin goals of supporting Black students and advocating for equal treatment for Black teachers, and to suggest future directions for research.