Black Home Schooling Parents Meet in the Deep South

Baton Rouge, La.

When Joyce Burges first started home schooling her children 15 years ago, the African-American mother of five turned to a white home schooling mom from her church to show her the ropes.

After a few years, Ms. Burges and her husband, Eric Burges, felt they knew enough about the practice that they could mentor others, and they particularly wanted to reach out to African-Americans. So in 2000, the couple from Baker, La., founded the National Black Home Educators Resource Association, or NBHERA. The organization uses the Web site www.nbhera.org , a newsletter, and an annual symposium to support black families who are home schooling. The group held this year’s symposium, its fourth, July 29-30 here in Baton Rouge.

The Burgeses have persuaded a number of African-American families to educate their children at home. “Black people like familiarity,” said Ms. Burges, who now home schools the two youngest of the couple’s five children. “They were not familiar with home schooling but they were...