Send us a text

Seventy years after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment: How far have we truly come? While our schools today are more diverse than ever, recent studies reveal a harsh reality—they're still deeply segregated.

Educational equity is not just an ideal; it's both an outcome and an action that we've made real progress on before. And today, as in the past, those victories are never foregone conclusions; it takes ordinary people who take extraordinary measures to see that all of us live up to the values we say we’re about.

In this episode, we sit down with some of Raleigh's Trailblazers whose stories of resilience and advocacy offer both inspiration and direction for our ongoing efforts to dismantle the predictability of racialized outcomes in our schools.

Special thanks to Joe Holt Jr, Gloria Hunter, Deborah Holt Noel, Larry Manuel, Sarah Thuesen, Paul Pope, Briana Pelton, Ainsley Powell, Cheryl Crooms Williams, The City of Raleigh Museum, The Historic Turner House Foundation, and The Friends of Oberlin Village. Music is provided by Blue Dot Sessions. The theme song, "Mirrors," is by Joseph McDade.

Send us a text

Join host Keiyonna Dubashi as she sits down with Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock of We Are (Working to Extend Anti-Racist Education) and how she is thinking about what it will take to move our institutions in North Carolina toward more anti-racist outcomes, particularly in our schools.

Send us a text

We’re doing something a little different for the next few episodes. I’ll be stepping aside while my friend Keiyonna Dubashi, founder of Profound Ladies, temporarily hosts the podcast and shares some conversations from the Profound Ladies Equity Pledge series that took place last spring. Profound Ladies is dedicated to recruiting and retaining Black and Indigenous Women of Color and equipping them with the mentorship, leadership, and career development pathways necessary for them to succeed, grow, and thrive. Prior to the Brown V. Board, 35-50% of teachers — and an equivalent percentage of principals — were Black, particularly in the south. Today, that number is only about 6% nationwide. Organizations like Profound Ladies have set out to change that.

In the wake of the Brown decision and the subsequent desegregation efforts, over 40,000 African American teachers and school leaders lost their jobs. That’s because desegregation has always occurred at the pace of white comfort.

In the first of the series, Keiyonna sits down with Dr. Jerry Wilson of CREED (Center for Racial Equity In Education). They talk through the current state of education, what it will take to confront how we got to where we are today, and how we can join in solidarity with efforts happening right now to close the gap between our values and our actions.

Music provided by Blue Dot Sessions. The theme song mirrors is by Joseph McDade.