Progress and pushback: The history of equal rights in education
“Are you ready to go back in history?” Professor Joy Williamson-Lott asks that question early on in this talk. She’s encouraging the audience, exciting us, but also challenging us.
The history of public education in the United States, her area of focus, is rife with deeply troubling inequality and injustice.
Williamson-Lott teaches at the University of Washington's College of Education: “courses on education as a moral endeavor, the shifting definition of 'proper education' and 'liberation' for different social groups, and the educational histories of people of color.”
Her books include “Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-1975” and “Radicalizing the Ebony Tower: Black Colleges and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi.”
Williamson-Lott gave this talk, "New Hurdles, Same Territory: How History Can Guide the Future of Education," at UW’s Kane Hall on February 15. She spoke as part of the Graduate School lecture series “Equity & Difference: Privilege.”
Listen to the full version below:
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John O'Brien
Senior Producer, All Things Considered
John O’Brien is KUOW's All Things Considered Senior Producer. He spends his days setting up interviews with newsmakers on subjects from politics and public health to arts and culture. John learned to make radio starting in 2006 as an intern on KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds.
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