I founded NAAHA in late January 2003 in order to forge better organization to the burgeoning number of African-American families who have opted to homeschool. I also wanted to create a highly visible national organization where families could obtain the relevant information that they needed to begin homeschooling or to network with other families in their area. It was also my fervent attempt to create a comforting place on the Web where novice or undecided families could feel empowered about their educational choice or potential decision to homeschool despite the prevailing negative attitude toward homeschooling from most African-Americans and the educational community. As my overall objectives were steadily met, I can honestly say that something began happening that I did not initially intend. I began meeting inspiring African-American homeschooling families, all of whom I would never have had the opportunity to meet if I had not started NAAHA.
One of the first homeschooling families that I met left an indelible mark on me, one that will certainly last my entire lifetime. I met a woman who was well into her sixties but had home schooled her children decades earlier when home education was still illegal in Wisconsin. Although we only spoke via phone, the history and experiences that she shared will forever shape my ideas, direction and enthusiasm as I homeschool my own children and help others homeschool theirs. This mother, now a great-grandmother, mentioned to me that she and her husband were adamant about not sending their children to the local public school, even when the climate was starkly against home education and parents' rights to choose how and where their children would learn. She stressed that even during those uncertain times she and her husband instinctively knew that they could provide a better education for each of their five daughters without the state dictating their children's course and perspectives on life.
