Where is Education’s MLK of 2016?

From: The Atlantic

by Melinda Anderson

A year after leading thousands of protesters in the famous Selma-to-Montgomery march, Martin Luther King Jr. brought his campaign to end racial discrimination to Chicago. Rather than voting rights, the target was housing inequity in a city known in 1966—and even today—as the most racially segregated in the nation. King moved his family into a dilapidated apartment on Chicago’s West Side,launching the Chicago Freedom Movement and bringing national attention to the fight for better housing, better schools, and better jobs for blacks in the North.

Now 50 years later, seventh- and eighth-graders at Seward Academy on Chicago’s South Side study King and the very issue that brought him to their city.

Read the rest of the story at The Atlantic

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Editorial

Today we honor Martin Luther King Jr., his life, legacy and impact on all who inhabit this often challenging world. The Atlantic’s piece on social justice education brings to light important issues in the history of American education and causes us to pause and think about today’s reformers.

Education is in dire need of a transformational personality and voice transcending union lines and personal interests. They will remain unnamed, but many of the leading reformers in education circles promote cynicism with very little terms of mediation. Martin Luther King Jr. made people think beyond their natural boundaries and challenged us to think about the human experience without demonizing others in the process. Hopefully today has brought reflection on the man, his legacy and lessons that continue to apply to our everyday existence.