Dr. Linda  Burnes Bolton; Making a Difference 

See: http://www.workingnurse.com/articles/Profiles-in-Nursing-Linda-Burnes-Bolton-RN-Ph-D-FAAN

Dr. Betty Smith Williams, Making a Difference

See: http://www.cbnlosangeles.org/press_releases.html 

Carla Yarbrough, Ten Out of Ten Productions  -- Making a Difference

See: http://tenoutoftenllc.com/About_the_Artist.html 

http://youtu.be/sVHSP2-WO28  

Journal of Unabridged Genius   --- Making a Difference

http://geniusjournal.weebly.com/editorial-board.html 

Cherif Keita, Carleton University --  Making a Difference

http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/fren/faculty/ 

Hakeem Kae-Kazim -- Making a Difference

http://www.hakeemkae-kazim.com/Home.html 

"Little Rock Central High School remains an icon that one clicks into to be directed into the very heart of so many problems often hidden from this country as a whole -- yet which must be confronted, understood deeply, engaged, and resolved if we are to change the site to which that icon leads us." (comments from Dr. Willingham-Toure' after participating in the African Heritage Film Series review of the HBO Award Winning Documentary "Little Rock Central High School: Fifty Years Later" on February 18, 2008 at the University of California Santa Barbara. Also participating on the response panel was Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the original Little Rock Nine. Gloria Willingham-Toure' PhD

Revisiting the Achievement Gap: A Commentary Gloria J. Willingham-Toure’ PhD Recently, I had the opportunity to view the awarding winning HBO documentary entitled “Little Rock Central High School Fifty Years Later,” by Craig and Brent Renaud. That was not an easy experience for me. I was saddened by much of what I saw: saddened, but still hopeful. If you have not yet viewed this film, I invite you to do so, and to examine your own thoughts and reactions. I originally shared many of these comments with an audience at the African Heritage Film Series, hosted by the African Heritage Society of Santa Barbara California and held at the University of California, Santa Barbara Multicultural Center on February 18, 2009. Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the Original Little Rock Nine, Dr. Clyde Woods, a Professor of Black Studies at UCSB and I were the invited response panel addressing a very diverse and standing room only audience. These are my unedited reactions and thoughts. I wanted to share them with you, the supporters and collaborators of the Village P.r.o.j.e.c.t.s in hopes of generating deeper thoughts, commitment to action, and fostering understanding that will make a difference in this new age. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I wanted to hug each student in that film. I wanted to say to each one of them “I love you, and I am so proud of you for being here.” That might sound like a very insensitive thing to say given the plethora of problems presented in the film accompanied by a plethora of frustrations expressed by both the students and the faculty. And yet I felt much love for these students. I was painfully reminded of the differences of the situations into which they were born. Some were born into poverty, and some into wealth. Some were born Black and some White. Some were of other racial groups so small in number until they were not even mentioned in the film, as if they did not exist. Some were learning information that would prepare them for the “better” jobs and for more acceptance into the society into which they would find themselves. Others were being taught information that would simply “get them a high school diploma.” What they all shared in common is that they were born into a system that was designed to perpetuate a place for them in the society, and they were responding to that system. For some the response was considered positive in that it was certain that if they stayed on that track they would become “productive” members and leaders in the society. Hence the perhaps unintentional system set up that could perpetuate the status quo for yet another fifty years. For some the response was considered a “behavioral problem” or a response different than what was expected of them. I recall the Black students, who were in “ advanced placement” (AP) classes describing themselves as being “different” and hearing the teachers also refer to them as being “different.” One would wonder what the difference really was. I heard terms such as “AP world,” used almost euphemistically for the term “White world.” The Black students who were selected to enter “AP World” were therefore considered to be in a world that was “normal” for the White students, but considered to be something for them only if they were “different.” The difference was inferred as being “different than being Black.” The inference in the film was that those students who were Black were inherently likely to fail simply because they are Black; and that the only way to avert that path of failure is to somehow be different than the perceptions of being a Black person. The inference was that some natural selection process rendered the Black students most likely to fail. I heard this in the teachers’ comments as they shared the supporting data that would substantiate the likelihood of failure of these students. They cited such evidence as failing grades, as behavioral problems, as single parenthood, as poverty, as not wanting to succeed, as not having parental support, etc. This "evidence" was cited as being natural occurrences in the Black households, while the White normal was depicted quite differently. A mirror to our society was held in front of us, and that mirror was reflecting a society that is more than simply the classrooms that were being visited or the teachers/students being interviewed/observed. I saw city officials driving through delapidated neighborhoods harboring the homes of the students having the most difficulty. I heard the officials speaking of those communities as problems, yet the communities did not show any real sign of improvements nor did I hear of any serious intent to do anything about it. Hence the very impoverished Black communities were being systematically perpetuated; just as the affluent communities in Pulaski Heights and other admittedly affluent White areas were being perpetuated -- thus sustaining and contributing to the circumstances that will widen the achievement gap over time between impoverished Blacks and Whites. I heard the voices of community activists expressing frustration over the lack of attention to issues such as increasingly high Black on Black crimes. I heard some activists blaming the Blacks for their own plight and indicating that “if they would just do something this would not be occurring.” I saw Black students who in many ways have lost that period of life known as “Teenager.” Instead they had been thrust into a much older and hardened life while simultaneously being expected to behave as teenagers without such experiences when placed in a classroom. I saw “White” kids who were from affluent families and well- positioned to be dominant in the level of education that they received and who were free to focus on their studies without the baggage of problems faced by their Black counterparts. I saw a clean divide between the groups… What is even sadder is that I saw that divide being perpetuated in all conversations, structures, actions, etc. The teaching methods seemed consistent with those that I had experienced while at Little Rock Central High School almost fifty years ago and in many ways were informed by the educational systems, laws, social systems, and life experiences that prepared the teacher and students. I recall sitting in classrooms and not really being taught, but rather being a part of the class in which the teaching was really being directed at the White students. I found myself having to learn on my own assisted by my family, my church members, and concerned others. I literally had a village of support surrounding me to counter the assumptions that because I was Black I somehow was not interested in learning or should learn only certain information necessary to prepare me for some pre-destined life. Yet in all fairness to the teachers, they were doing what they were prepared to do. The teachers had been prepared to work with the “normal” children and this normal included those who were White and in some cases those who were not White, but who also were not Black. They did their job. My job was simply to fit into their socially constructed classrooms or to be considered a failure. I see that now. I noticed in the PTSA meeting that there was only one Black parent in attendance and it was if she was not present. She was in many ways silenced and left to carry on conversations within herself while the principal addressed the White parents. I watched that dynamic carefully as the Principal conveyed the spirit of sad hopefulness that somehow the gap between Black and White students at Little Rock Central High School would be closed or narrowed because the school was trying. The audience listened. I would wonder what has really changed since that film was produced, and I would wonder what is really informing the change. I saw an updated display of some of the same attitudes that I experienced almost fifty years ago sans the physical and overt emotional attacks. The laws have changed since that first group of students entered Little Rock Central High School and so has the iconoclastic view of the school. In many ways LRCHS remains an icon that one clicks into to be directed into the very heart of so many problems often hidden from this country as a whole yet which must be confronted, understood deeply, engaged, and resolved if we are to change the site to which that icon leads us. These are changing times in the United States, in Little Rock, Arkansas and in other cities across this great country. The changes are not as simple as one would think on first glance. You have no doubt heard the phrase “Minority-Majority” as it has floated around for a few years now. I am certain that you are familiar with the term diversity which is often used as a euphemism for any environment that is not “all White.” What we are less conscious of is the divide that has existed in this country for generations between not only Blacks and Whites but within the very systems that feed them. This is painful on all fronts. This is more than a simple issue that rests solely with the educational system… Perhaps there is a real need for change in the educational systems and the preparation of persons to work in those systems. The issue of achievement gaps is more than merely Black and White. Achievement gaps are not new and they are not unpredictable. Over 50 years ago in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1967 at an institute held at Philander Smith College it was stated: “ Equal education is possible only if the problem of unequal achievement in individual schools of the system is approached honestly and creatively. Otherwise, achievement level will replace skin color as a basis for discrimination. …” (Special Training Institute, 1967, p. 2) That was then and this is now. Achievement gaps have become the basis of discrimination. We have moved into an age of hope and change, an age of revisiting the systems that have perpetuated the conditions that have divided us for too long. The challenge now is to realize that we are all a part of those systems and that we cannot change them by doing the same things. the same way...without change. All too often our conversations are guided by outdated and unproven theories that were developed during a time when Blacks and many others did not have access to the education and other systems in this country. In many ways our use of those conversations, those theories, those systems tend to perpetuate the very discrimination that we claim to abhor. We find ourselves becoming worn out and frustrated as we attempt to continuously pound the same square peg into a round hole, and blame the pegs if it doesn’t work. It is time for a change in our systems and in us. Each of us must ask, just as one child in the audience asked: “What can we do to make a difference?” We have lived for centuries in a racially divided system and all that perpetuates that system. All the while even as we have moved forward we have denied the change in the demographics in this country reducing it to such euphemisms as “diversity,” and “minority-majority,” which sanitizes and neutralizes our needs to look deeper within our systems and within ourselves. “…Few teachers of either race have been trained to teach in bi-racial schools, there is a clear need for teacher training with an emphasis on the social and psychological factors which influence the learning process in the multi-cultural school.” (Special Training Institute on Problems of School Desegregation for Teachers and Administrators, October 15, 1966 – May 6, 1967, page 2). Note: Dr. Gloria Willingham-Toure’ (AKA, Gloria Nelson) was one of the group of four Black students who entered Little Rock Central High School for the first time in 1960 and who remained for the entire three years graduating in 1963. A generation later, her daughter graduated from LRCHS becoming the first second generation Black graduate of the historic school. Dr. Willingham-Toure’ is currently the Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, School of Educational Leadership and Change, Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California.( http://www.fielding.edu ). She is also the founder of The Village P.r.o.j.e.c.t.s. Additional historic resources and references: African Heritage Society, Santa Barbara, California and African Heritage Film Series found at http://www.sbahfs.org American Association of Retired Persons (AARP): Voices of Civil Rights found at http://www.voicesofcivilrights.org/?CMP=KNC-360I-YAHOO-ATM&HBX_OU=51&HBX_PK=desegregation Arkansas Council on Human Relations files, University of Arkansas Library: see http://libinfo.uark.edu/specialcollections/findingaids/ACHR Black Studies Department, University of California Santa Barbara – History http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/student_info/history.html ) Tavis Smiley Interviews Dr. Terrence Roberts, One of the Little Rock Nine. (http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200709/20070906_roberts.html Title IV, Section 404 of Public Law 88-352, The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Clyde Woods PhD, professor of Black Studies, University of California Santa Barbara - http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/people/woods.html Gloria J. Willingham-Toure' PhD