TEMPE, AZ — To leave a lasting legacy is something many dream of doing. For Evelyn Plantillas, she didn’t have to look further than within her own family. Plastered on a middle school building, the name “Geneva Epps Mosley” was sprawled across, she saw her mother’s legacy being remembered in the community.
“Every time I see it, it's unbelievable,” Plantillas said while looking up at Geneva Epps Mosley Middle School in Tempe.
Mosley was the Tempe Elementary School District’s first Black teacher. She was a kindergarten teacher at Frank Elementary for 11 years and then spent 18 years at Gililland Middle School. After nearly 30 years of being a classroom teacher, she started substituting until she was 80.
Plantillas said her mother graduated in 1959 and then eventually got her master’s degree as well.
“That in itself was astonishing considering where she came from, you know. She worked hard, worked in the cotton fields when she was going to school,” Plantillas said, adding that her mother worked several jobs.
Gililland Middle School was renamed to Geneva Epps Mosley Middle just a few years ago after information came to light that some Tempe schools and streets were named after people with ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
“My mom did not let limitations interfere with her being able to do her extraordinary work. She had a motto that she lived by. She said the world owes you nothing but an opportunity, ” Plantillas said.
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Mosley certainly created her own opportunities, her daughter said. Those opportunities led her to help many others over the years.
“She didn't like anything that would hold anyone back. And so that's why it was important for her to educate kids so that they would have an opportunity to move forward if that's what they desire, and that was for everyone,” Plantillas said.
For Berdetta Hodge, who is now a Tempe city council member, Mosley was her second Black teacher growing up. She remembers Mrs. Mosley loving the color red and would be honest with her students.
“Having her in my life like I actually had a hero that kind of looked like me… Just seeing them in that light made me realize that there's more I can do with mine. Just her believing in me, you know, at that age in middle school just followed me through life,” Hodge said.
Mosley died in December at the age of 95. Her legacy will continue through her own children and the hundreds of students she taught over the years.
“Anything that I do from now on, her fingerprints are on it,” Hodge said.
Her name is also forever memorialized and remembered as part of the middle school in Tempe.
“Hearing about her legacy just realizing right now the impact that she has had on Tempe, it’s really encouraging. It leaves you with a profound feeling of respect for what she did,” Plantillas said.
“Through her unyielding passion and dedication as a longtime educator, we remain inspired by Mrs. Mosley. We are proud to carry her name on our school building, and carry forward her belief that all students are capable of reaching their dreams,” Tempe Elementary School District Superintendent Dr. James Driscoll said in a tribute to Mosley.
