{"id":4444,"date":"2025-04-12T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T03:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miwf.org\/?post_type=mwhof&p=4444"},"modified":"2025-09-23T22:49:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T02:49:39","slug":"geneva-smitherman","status":"publish","type":"mwhof","link":"https:\/\/miwf.org\/celebrating-women\/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame\/geneva-smitherman\/","title":{"rendered":"Geneva Smitherman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Geneva Smitherman is a University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English and co-founder of the African American and African Studies doctoral program at Michigan State University. Smitherman co-founded the Malcolm X Academy within Detroit Public Schools, the first public African-centered elementary school in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oldest of seven children, Smitherman started her education in a one-room schoolhouse. She graduated from Detroit\u2019s Cass Technical High School and earned a B.A. and M.A. in English and Latin from Wayne State University and a PhD in English, with a specialization in sociolinguistics and education, from the University of Michigan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smitherman\u2019s book, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America, published in 1977, contributed to shifting public and academic perspectives towards the value of African-American Vernacular English. This work has been widely referenced by teachers, legal scholars, sociologists, and policy analysts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4191,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4444","mwhof","type-mwhof","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGeneva Smitherman - Michigan Women Forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Geneva Smitherman is a University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English and co-founder of the African American and African Studies doctoral program at Michigan State University.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/celebrating-women\/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame\/geneva-smitherman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Geneva Smitherman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Geneva Smitherman is a University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English and co-founder of the African American and African Studies doctoral program at Michigan State University.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/celebrating-women\/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame\/geneva-smitherman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Michigan Women Forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MichiganWomenForward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-24T02:49:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Geneva-Smitherman.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/celebrating-women\/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame\/geneva-smitherman\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/celebrating-women\/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame\/geneva-smitherman\/\",\"name\":\"Geneva Smitherman - 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