Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
“I Have A Dream” speech
August 28, 1963
(Watch the 17 minute VIDEO by clicking above)
Racial Justice Progress in MLK’s Life:
Voting Rights Act of 1965
“The Voting Rights Act gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among Black people increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969.”
“The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.”
“After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Nevertheless, in the ensuing decades, various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans, particularly those in the South, from exercising their right to vote.”
Continue reading about this at History.com
2023 READ “A Proclamation on Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2023” from the White House
2021 READ the draft bill “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021” that has yet to pass…
… and this is how hard racial justice can be — just for a MLK holiday in all 50 states! https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-had-rocky-road-towards-making-martin-luther-king-jr-day-a-state-holiday-heres-what-you-should-know
READ: Voting Rights Act of 1965 (at History.com)
Gaps in College Graduation Rates
by Racial Identity Persist
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday (born January 15, 1929) and today’s national day of commemoration of MLK’s leadership in non-violence and vision for racial justice, we examine in more depth the US higher-education sector results for students by racial identity.
More than five decades after MLK’s murder on April 4, 1968, Black and African-American students still are still not accessing the same opportunities and outcomes as White, non-Hispanic students.
One of the central pathways to success – and typically power – in the United States is graduating with a college degree. Unfortunately, the college and university system in the US reveals several systemic injustices in American society.
One variable which very starkly shows the gap among racial identities is college graduation rates: the graduation rate for Black or African-American students is 33%; the rate for White, non-Hispanic students is 55%, a difference of 22% points, or a 66% differential.
There are several in-depth looks into the patterns and causes around this disparity by race in higher education.
Our HIP analyst team studied 2,289 colleges and universities which are listed (U.S. Dept. of Education’s IPEDs data) with more than 1,000 matriculating students.
We found that in those institutions which achieved top decile performance on graduation rates, 98% enrolled proportionally fewer Black students than the average college or university. Only 2 percent of top colleges and universities have a fair representation of Black or African American students in the student body.
Those colleges and universities which have a larger Black population experience significantly lower graduation rates. While 14% or 1 in 7 of US citizens are Black or African American, in schools with at least the national average of Black people in the US of Black students, only 38% manage to graduate within 150% of normal time (i.e within 6 years of a 4-year degree). In schools that lack adequate Black representation, more than 52% of students graduate.
This difference in graduation rates is not driven by low graduation rates for Black and African American students. There is a consistent drop across all races. Students from all races graduate at rates -10 to -15 percentage points lower than at colleges with a lack of Black representation.
Thus, the US-wide gap in graduation rates for Black students is driven strongly not by the students’ motivation or attainment but rather by Black students attending schools that have lesser graduation rates overall.
To quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “White Americans must recognize that justice for Black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society.”
These radical changes need to be economic but also work through representation and education and acknowledgment of the cumulative historical racial biases. One school which has achieved parity between graduation rates for Black and White students is the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Founded after the U.S. Supreme Court case of Brown vs Board of Education, the school was never previously segregated and early on supported academic success for African Americans.
The UMBC leadership reviews their efforts, including the pioneering Meyerhoff Program.
Even earlier in the 1970s, when less than 1% of students were African American, the Caucus of Black Faculty and Staff worked towards starting to actively recruit Black students. Having worked toward equality for 50 years has borne fruit. If other institutions had followed UMBC’s lead earlier, we could be living in a more equal – or less unequal – society.
The best moment to start building a more equitable world was back then, but the second best moment is now.
UMBC has managed to build a university where Black students have more equal opportunities, just as White students frequently do. UMBC has shown how a combination of political vision, financial investment and an open ear to the needs of all races and backgrounds can lead to massive transformations.
More leaders like UMBC can spark added transformational changes needed for our society – and continue to showcase what can be done across all higher education.