Tiny Maryland school linked to city educator’s great-grandmother

Retired educator Dawn Blake Souza said she has always been inspired by her great-grandmother, a teacher who taught freed slaves in Maryland.

Now Souza has brought that family legacy full circle through a recent trip to the schoolhouse where her ancestor first taught.

Souza said throughout her life, she had been told about the career of Emma Louise Piper. “She was my inspiration when I was a little girl to become a teacher,” she said.

That inspiration propelled Souza through a teaching career that took her as far as Arizona and ended with a position as principal of New Bedford’s Campbell School. And throughout it all, she longed to know more details about Piper’s life. read full story