As Black History Month nears an end, we share this profile of outstanding youth advocate, Dr. Joseph Marshall Jr. Dr. Marshall is the host of nationally syndicated radio talk show, Street Soldiers. The Street Soldiers website highlights some of Dr. Marshall's achievements during his decades of work in education and youth advocacy:
Dr. Marshall is the first person to classify youth violence as a disease, and his work has been recognized in the 2001 Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence. As Executive Director of the Omega Boys Club, he oversees the Omega Leadership Academy for academic and life skills education, the Omega Training Institute on violence prevention; and Street Soldiers Communications, which includes a nationally syndicated radio talk show.
He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the McArthur Foundation Genius Award, the Leadership Award from the Children's Defense Fund, the Essence Award honoring outstanding contributions by African American men, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Award from the National Educational Association, and the "Use Your Life Award" from Oprah Winfrey's Angel Network. He is also the author of the 1996 best-selling book, Street Soldier: One Man's Struggle to Save a Generation, One Life at a Time.
black history month
On Feb. 1, 1960, four young black students sat at the whites-only Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they were refused service by staff and heckled by patrons. By fall, sit-ins spread to more than 100 Southern cities and historians estimate that as many as 100,000 participated in the non-violent protest. These couragous acts continue to inspire the anti-hate movement today.
Here are clips from the PBS documentary, Eyes on the Prize. The historical footage includes students walking to lunch counters and students leaders describing their motives and strategies. Our education partners at Facing History created an Eyes on the Prize study guide.
For Black History Month, we share this video, "Profiling Kevin," featuring a young man whose passion for racial and social justice leads him to engage his teachers and classmates about issues of diversity and equality in his school and community. Standing in a classroom at Palo Alto High School, 16-year-old Kevin tells his classmates, "We need to ... take a bite of the apple of knowledge and realize where we stand and where we need to go."
Welcome to the Black History Month page. Here you'll find all of our blog posts, in descending order, posted in celebration of this commemorative month in February 2011.
Feb. 23: Youth Advocate: Dr. Joseph Marshall Jr.
As Black History Month nears an end, we share this profile of outstanding youth advocate, Dr. Joseph Marshall Jr. Dr. Marshall is the host of nationally syndicated radio talk show, Street Soldiers. The Street Soldiers website highlights some of Dr. Marshall's achievements during his decades of work in education and youth advocacy:
Dr. Marshall is the first person to classify youth violence as a disease, and his work has been recognized in the 2001 Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence. As Executive Director of the Omega Boys Club, he oversees the Omega Leadership Academy for academic and life skills education, the Omega Training Institute on violence prevention; and Street Soldiers Communications, which includes a nationally syndicated radio talk show.
From our educational partners at Facing History and Ourselves comes this video of Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a man called "one of the most courageous persons the civil rights movement ever produced." Rep. Lewis was among the Freedom Riders and later chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that challenged segregation in the South. He wrote the foreword to Facing History's study guide for the documentary, Eyes on the Prize.
During Black History Month, we will be sharing a number of resources that touch upon the continued struggle and incredible inspiration that stems from African-American history. This video, in particular, captures the importance of coming together as a nation. As Rep. Lewis says:
"We must build one house, we must build one family. We must build a house that's strong enough for all of us as we face history, as we face ourselves. Walk with the wind, let the spirit of history be our guide."