"In MLK’S Footsteps: Education as a Civil Right"

The fight for equal schooling provides the theme for WNYC’s annual commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event begins with a discussion of the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, featuring John A. Stokes, a plaintiff in the 1954 suit. Stokes will also talk about being one of the first African-American students to enter a desegregated school as a result of the case. Fredrick C. Harris, director of Columbia’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies, will also address the civil-rights struggle in education since the work of Dr. King. Later, writer and cultural critic Touré and Newark superintendent of public schools Cami Anderson will discuss how technology affects gaps in educational quality among different races and economic classes. WNYC’s Brian Lehrer and Jami Floyd, the managing editor of blog the Global Game, moderate. Speeches read by Manhattan Country School eighth graders and a performance by singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon will round out the event.