Daytonian Margaret Peters graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1954 and earned her B.S. with Honors, M.A. and Supervisor’s Certificate from the University of Dayton.
A teacher in the Dayton Public Schools for thirty years, she also served as Black History Resource Teacher for the district, served on the executive board of the Dayton Education Association (DEA), conducted workshops for the Human Rights Commission of the Ohio Education Association (OEA), and edited the newsletter of the Doris L. Allen Minority Caucus (DLAMC) of the OEA. She also taught at Central State University West, Sinclair Community College and the University of Dayton. After retiring in 1993, she served as president of the DEA-R (Retired Teachers), and as a member of both the Dayton Public School’s and Ohio Department of Education’s Social Studies Writing Teams. She is currently an adjunct professor at Sinclair Community College.
She accepted Christ as her savior while a student at Irving Elementary School, and is a member of Zion Baptist Church, where she sings in the Sanctuary Choir and serves as historian, church school superintendent and teacher. From 1993-2008, she served as a coordinator/tutor in Zion’s free after-school tutorial program. Past community activities include service as a board member of Greater Dayton Christian Connections and as chair of the Dayton Wallpaper Project Planning Committee (oral history/theater project) which produced the play From Here: A Century of Stories from Ohio. Current service includes president, Dayton Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH); secretary, Dayton African American Legacy Institute, Inc. (DAALI); chair, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Program, which has awarded more than a quarter of a million dollars to high school seniors, and the Dr. Martin Luther King K-12 Art, Poetry & Prose Contest, in which more than 17,000 students have participated; board member, Leaders for Equality and Action in Dayton (LEAD) and the Muse Machine (Emeritus); and trustee at large, the Dayton Aviation Heritage Area.
Her writings include Dayton’s African American Heritage, Expanded Edition, 2005 (the 1995 edition sold out); “The Poet: Paul Laurence Dunbar” in Paul Laurence Dunbar: We Wear the Mask by Willis “Bing” Davis, 1997; “In Celebration of Black History,” Dayton Daily News, January 1992; “Goin’ Up Yonder: The Story of Black Migration,” Miami Valley History: A Journal of the Montgomery County Historical Society, May, 1989; “Blacks in Ohio History,” (co-author with her brother, Wendell), Ohio Almanac, 1980 and The Ebony Book of Black Achievement, 1970, which was included in the American Library Association’s 1994 Coretta Scott King Awards Book. Since 1995, she has written a weekly column, “From the Root,” in The Dayton Weekly News.
She has been recognized at the national, state and local levels. In 2006, she was selected for inclusion in The HistoryMakers, a national video oral history archive. Other national honors include election to the National ASALH Executive Council, 1993-1995; Dr. Carter G. Woodson Award, National Education Association, 1993; Excellence in Teaching Award for the Midwest Region, National Council of Negro Women, 1991. State honors include the Dr. Charles Glatt Human & Civil Rights Award, Ohio Education Association, 2005; Education Award, the Ohio Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Committee, 1995; Appointment to the Aviation Heritage Commission by Governor Voinovich, 1993 and Minority Educator of the Year for the State of Ohio, DLAMC/OEA, 1983. She was featured in Dayton Skyscrapers, a 2007 exhibit by area African American visual artists. Other local honors include induction into the Wright-Dunbar Walk of Fame, 2002; the Mary Scott Legacy Award for Volunteerism, 1999; the first Electra C. Doren Award, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, 1997; Humanitarian Award, NCCJ, 1997, Ten Top Women, Dayton Daily News, 1995 and the Community Service Award, Alkebu-lan Wa Kweli, 1991.
