Education, The Great Equalizer

By Kevin C. Morris

Hidden stories, like hidden jewels, are often the most treasured and precious possessions we could ever hope to find. Such is the case with the story of Percy Lavon Julian, one of America’s preeminent chemists, business leaders, and civil rights pioneers. Like a buried treasure, the story of this brilliant American offers as much value because of what it teaches us about our past, as it inspires us today.

The grandson of slaves, and born on April 11, 1899 in Birmingham, AL, at the height of Jim Crow segregation, Percy Julian was one of six children. His father, a railroad mail clerk, and his mother, a schoolteacher, stressed the importance of education to their children—a value which propelled their children to amazing heights never achieved by previous generations shackled in bondage.

By Jessica Rodriguez

Luis Walter Alvarez liked to ask tough questions. As an experimental scientist, Dr. Alvarez used his innate curiosity to answer some of science’s most fundamental queries and change the way people understood the world.

By Mary Castillo

Sylvia Mendez, 73, keeps hundreds of letters from students who thank her for speaking in their classes. They range from elementary to university students and all of them write that they never knew the story of her parents, Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez, who fought to make California the first state in the United States to end racial segregation in schools in 1947

By Janice S. Ellis

Lamenting the dysfunctional state of many of our nation’s public schools has been a perennial refrain for decades. However, to fix what is wrong will require courageous decisions implemented by communities across the country, despite strong resistance.

Fortunately, some public schools are producing students who demonstrate high academic achievement, and can compete not only with peers here in America but with those across the globe. However, those schools that demonstrate consistent academic excellence, unfortunately, are not the norm.