Mary Bounds - A Light Shines in Hrlem: New Yorks First Charter School and the Movement It Led

Index

In 1959, while still a young minister in Virginia, I organized and led the first local Prayer Pilgrimage for Public Schools, an event that protested Virginia state officials attempts to block public school integration. Forty years after my foray into human rights and the struggle for justice, in 1999, as a senior minister in Harlem, I joined with others as part of another nonviolent revolution and march for justice, forming the first charter public school in the state of New York. This book is a history of that pioneering school and its formation, and of the movement for better public schools for all of Americas children.

The United States is a child of revolutionpolitical, social, and culturalall for perfecting the reality of our experiment to create a democracy that is DE FACTO rather than only DE JURE! All of these revolutions were achieved through sacrifice and the coming together of diverse people who were like-minded in their dedication to solve an identifiable crisis that faced the nation. The march for better public schools, as symbolized by the charter school movement, is one more such revolution, and it is just beginning. The future of millions of children depends on the success of its reforms. Now, with so many industrialized nations ahead of the United States in education quality, the international standing of our nation depends on it as well.

The American Revolution and Civil War cost us nearly a million lives. Fortunately, the revolution for better public education can be achieved nonviolently! Participation in this movement for better schools will be diverse and nonexclusionary. This book might serve as our playbook for such an effort.

In his recent book David and Goliath, the writer Malcolm Gladwell described my work and others work in the Birmingham civil rights campaign of 1963 as a David versus Goliath story. The effort to create great new charter schools now is another such story, requiring community leaders and educators to overcome many obstacles and much entrenched opposition.

That which commends the charter school movement to such a daunting task is the diversity of the personnel it has attracted to its ranks: former teachers, clergy, social change activists, lawyers, philanthropists, community organizers, and parents of school-age children. In this book, you will hear of my colleagues such as Marshall Mitchell, a skillful and accomplished former congressional chief of staff; Minnie Goka, a retired assistant school principal, and about other public school personnel who have viewed the problems from inside the broken system; Steven Klinsky, a Harvard-trained lawyer and philanthropist who has had much experience creating after-school learning centers, as well as vast Wall Street skills; Ruben Diaz Sr., a Latino clergyman and community activist; Floyd Flake, former congressperson and community leader; Judith Price, a businesswoman with extensive management skills and experience; dedicated school trustees, teachers, and school leaders such as Michelle Haynes, who grew up in Harlem public schools herself; and the parents of children in failing school districts. You will hear of the work of President Bill Clinton and Governor George Pataki in the successful passage of charter school laws across America and in New York, cementing the fragile beginning. All the participants together form a coalition that is non-gender specific, racially diverse, professional and nonprofessional, bound together by a common interest in education for every child. All are seeking to repair a system that is broken, which now produces students who are unemployable, and which may be beyond repair.

What made me join the charter school movement?

The movement for justice, of which I was a frontline participant, taught me the importance of quality education. The congregation in Harlem that I ministered for thirty-seven years chiefly served the children of District Five of the public school system of New York City; a district which had long been judged nonperforming and unable to produce students who were proficient in reading, math, and the sciences.

As I worked on other justice issues (housing, employment), I was frustrated that I had no tools to better the school system that served the families of my congregation. Was not the matter of quality education a justice issue also? I became convinced that quality education was the undeniable complement of the struggle that I had given my life to.

Thats what led me to dive into the charter school movement. I have no regrets whatsoever. All of the experience I gained in the human rights struggle was applicable to this new frontier of human rights. In my most reflective moments, I believe this is where Dr. King would be if he were still alive!

In the charter school movement, I am continuing the work of Dr. King that has far-reaching meaning. Every American child is deserving of a quality public school education. It is education that will guarantee that segregation and second-class citizenship will never return!

Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker
Author, theologian, cultural historian,
former chief of staff to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

More than seven years ago, when Victory Education Partners commissioned me to write a history of New Yorks first charter school, I thought that I would be writing the simple story of one school. I quickly discovered, though, that to tell it was also to tell a much larger and more complex story about the charter movement and education reform as a whole, as well as to illuminate how people unify across wide backgrounds to achieve a social mission. That story has evolved over the years into this book. At all times, I have intended to let the voices of the children, parents, educators, political leaders, and reformers come through, while also writing only the facts that I myself believe to be true as a journalist of more than thirty years. My goal is to tell both the inside story and an accurate story, and I hope this book succeeds at both.

Its impossible for me to thank everyone who gave their time, effort, and support for this project, but Ill mention some of them:

On the education side, my thanks go to the students, staff, and teachers at the Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem, especially educator extraordinaire Michelle Haynes and three students whose stories brought life to the bookMylaecha Aska, Traiquan Payne, and Tori Saldivia. Other educators help was also invaluablethe Center for Educational Innovations Sy Fliegel and Harvey Newman, longtime educator Peg Harrington, Mary Ranero-Cordero, and Harvard professor Paul Peterson.