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Past Educational Opportunity Reports
For most of the past decade the field of education has been a battleground...
- 09-23-2009
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A weekly summary of themes in education news provided by UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
Themes in the News for the week of January 11-15, 2010
We turn over our Themes today to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. On March 14, 1964, he accepted the John Dewey Award from the United Federation of Teachers and delivered this speech. The excerpt below comes a little more than 6 minutes into his address.
... For most of the past decade the field of education has been a battleground in the freedom struggle. It was not fortuitous that education became embroiled in this conflict. Education is one of the vital tools the Negro needs in order to advance. And yet it has been denied him by devises of segregation and manipulations with quality.
Historically, to keep Negroes in oppression they were deprived an education. In slave days it was illegal to teach a slave to read or write. With the ending of slavery and the emergence of quasi freedom, Negroes were only partially educated—sufficient to make their work efficient but insufficient to raise them to equality.
It is precisely because education is the road to equality and citizenship that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The walling off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second-class status. Therefore as Negroes have struggled to be free they have had to fight for the opportunity for a decent education....
The complete audio recording of this speech can be accessed here.
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