Susan Taylor Joins Experts In Forum On Crises In Education For Black Children

“It’s about time that African American parents, students, and educators joined together to define for ourselves the kind of education we want, and make plans to get it,” said Brian Jones, a parent and teacher

[Education]

From across the United States and Canada, Black educators, parents, students, youth workers, liberation elders and grassroots activists are gathering in Chicago, Illinois for the National Black Education Agenda (NBEA) Working Summit on Black Education, aptly themed, “Saving the African American Child.” 

A pre-working summit Youth Forum will be held on Oct. 10 from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. at Chicago State University and the Working Summit will take place from Oct. 11 – 13 at the Westin O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois.

The NBEA, a coalition of seasoned activists, educators, engaged scholars, and youth workers, is convening this Working Summit to pinpoint, prioritize and roll out a national strategy to implement proven solutions emerging from tireless grassroots community
resistance to detrimental education and social policies affecting African American youth nationwide.

“Out of the depths of our ancestors’ prayers, The NBEA’s Working Summit is responding to the silent cries from the souls of our
children, not with rhetoric, but with a national action plan to heal, galvanize and release the true essence of our youth’s greatness–the
next great movement has begun and it requires the commitment, sacrifice and strength found in our DNA,” said Fluke Fluker, a
California-based educator and activist.

The U.S. leads the world not in education but in incarceration: 2.2 million people are in prisons or jails and African Americans, who are
only 13% of the population, are more than 40% of those incarcerated.

The Sentencing Project reports: “One out of every three black males born today can expect to go to prison…”  According to the
Children’s Defense Fund, “States spend two and a half times more per prisoner than per public school students”.

Summit participants will become part of the NBEA’s centralized brain-trust of best practices and proven methods for successfully
educating children of African ancestry so they reach their fullest human potential and to free them from the school-to-prison pipeline.

Breaking from the traditional conference formula by bringing together a broad spectrum of Black expertise, to hasten an action agenda that speaks to this National crisis; and to establish the local and national organizational infrastructure and strategic
platforms to create power and equity for Black Children and their families – by means of academic and cultural excellence in education.

These facts will inform the Working Summit: Veteran Black educators who know how to use the Black community’s cultural strengths to effectively teach Black children are being villified, fired and replaced by novice recruits; as public schools are de-funded, closed or drained of millions of dollars, hedge fund speculators are encouraged to invest in corporate-backed, privatized for-profit education schemes; school curricula and teacher education include very little of the scientific and humanistic legacy of African people and Black children, whose brilliance has transformed the world’s cultural and musical aesthetic, are being mis-educated, suspended, pushed-out of schools into prison and are dying in the streets in haelstroms of gang and police violence.

Very few of the “survivors” of U.S. policies of abandonment – of our communities and schools – are prepared to become productive members of the society.

Using a foundation of African-centered and human rights-based education principles, the National Black Education Agenda’s Working
Summit will address policy-makers while it simultaneously reverberates a critical mass of organized power demanding and Implementing systemic change from early childhood and kindergarten to high schools, as well as institutions of higher learning, including the professional preparation of teachers and administrators.

“It’s about time that African American parents, students, and educators joined together to define for ourselves the kind of education we want, and make plans to get it,” said Brian Jones, a parent and teacher. “I hope that the NBEA Working Summit represents a big first step in that direction,” Jones said.

“All children should have access to loving and successful learning environments that will prepare them for world citizenship,” said Dr.
Iva Carruthers, Chair, Kwame Nkrumah Academy. “As adults, we must be willing to take responsibility to ensure that all children are nestled within a village that values and protects them and believes they can, and must learn,” Carruthers said.

In addition to the educators and activists who will facilitate 13 Action Groups, featured presenters include: former Essence Magazine
editor-in-chief and founder of the National Cares Mentoring Movement, Susan L. Taylor, leading scholar activists, Dr. Wade Nobles and Dr. Joyce E. King, acclaimed author, Dr. Joy DeGruy, philanthropists, Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Chicago native, educator and NBEA founding member, Dr. Donald Hugh Smith and long-time educator and organizer, Dr. Samuel Anderson.

For more information on the NBEA Working Summit and for updates on registration, please address inquiries to: [email protected] or call/fax. (888) 312-9994, or visit: www.theafricanamericanchild.com.

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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