Academic Achievement and Economic Power: The Next Civil Rights Frontier by Hugh Price

When THE BLACK COLLEGIAN was born (1970), affirmative action was gathering momentum, school integration was finally being implemented, Blacks were beginning to actively participate as voters in the political system and Black leaders were struggling to develop legislation and other measures to propel our people into the social and economic mainstream.

In three decades many shifts of seismic proportions have occurred. In 1997, approximately eighty-seven percent of our young people attained their high school diplomas as compared to fifty-five percent in 1970. Back then a mere 1,469 Blacks held elected office in our nation.  In 1998, we numbered 8,868. We have more Black doctors, attorneys, scientists, MBAs, CEOs and small business owners than at any other period in our country’s history. Black unemployment is at an all-time low. Black homeownership is growing, as are the ranks of the Black millionaires and billionaires among us.  Between 1976 and 1997, there was a sixty-eight percent increase in the number of Black women enrolled in college and a twenty-one percent increase for young Black men. More Black women and men than ever are enrolled in colleges.  African Americans represent the most highly educated people of African descent anywhere on the planet.

Many of these great social changes occurred as a result of the civil rights movement, the struggle for affirmative action, and our community organizing and mobilizing. Today’s Black college students are the beneficiaries of those positive transformations. With more of our numbers graduating and filling the ranks of corporate America, academia and other professions, young African Americans stand poised on the threshold of unbridled possibilities.

In the 21st Century, technology is such that each day heralds new scientific developments and new occupational possibilities. In this era of globalization, nations must work together.We must recognize our common interests and our mutual interdependency. The future is bright for many in the African-American community and for young Black collegians, it is unparalleled. But the other side of the story is that millions of Black families and children have yet to journey to the economic mainstream. Many are trapped in the despair of welfare dependence, drug addiction, underemployment, underachievement, failing schools and failing lives. For them the future is bleak and offers little reason to aspire to being a part of the great 21st Century mobility. What can the African-American community do to propel the entire Black family into the prosperity of the economic mainstream and a future of productive possibilities?  The answer is clear and it is do-able.  Since education is the surest route to the middle class, the priority of African Americans in the 21st Century must be academic achievement.

Economic power is the next civil rights frontier.  To cross that frontier, we must drive the engine of academic achievement into the vast American middle class. That is Job One for America in the 21st Century.  That is Job One for Black folk.  In the information age, education unlocks the door to the economic mainstream. Lousy education leads to economic apartheid.  This is the reason the Urban League has made it our mission in the 21st Century to promote African-American achievement.  It is why we are promoting 21st Century schools equipped with qualified and dedicated teachers, topnotch facilities, and principals, teachers and students who are accountable.

The Urban League believes our nation must invest in education. Washington must mount a bipartisan effort to enlist a new generation of educators whose starting salaries match those of young attorneys and MBAs, because they are equally valuable to society. To meet world-class standards, our children need world-class teachers.  And in return teachers should forsake rigid tenure and seniority, the time-clock mindset and contract stipulations about class length and size.

In 21st Century schools, principals should have the authority to assemble the faculty, set performance standards in terms of student achievement, and dismiss any teachers who don't measure up to the standard.  Quality, autonomy and accountability are essential features of the 21st Century School.  Further undermining our children’s progress is the reality that many of the schools in poor neighborhoods are obsolete and overcrowded, mammoth and anonymous.  The 21st Century School must be a modern citadel of learning, paid for by tax dollars in the same manner that we build prisons yearly-the only difference being that with the creation of schools, everyone wins, while the creation of prisons is just another way of recording failure.

Next on the path to economic self-sufficiency is job preparedness.  African Americans must have the skills to compete for jobs in the new international economy.  America's prosperity, indeed our leadership of the global economy, is driven by growth in science and engineering. Yet these industries face acute shortages of skilled workers. By some estimates, upwards of 400,000 jobs are unfilled.  This costs the economy $4 billion annually in lost productivity. If America doesn't expand the talent pool for high tech, we will forfeit our leadership position.

The high-tech industry's answer is to raise the ceiling on the number of guest workers who are suited for those jobs. But there's another solution to our labor shortage. Blacks, Latinos and other underrepresented minorities comprise a quarter of America's workforce.  Yet we hold less than seven percent of the jobs in science, engineering and high-tech industries. Instead of importing guest workers, who provide a temporary solution to a long-term structural problem, the high-tech industry and government must invest in homegrown talent. This means the creation of technology centers in poor rural and urban communities across America. Government must commit to investing in these centers as a way to jumpstart African-American citizens into the middle class in much the same way that it gave white Americans jumpstarts after World War I via the G.I. Bill, low-interest home loans, and sparkling new schools in sparkling new segregated suburbs.

Because the Urban League refuses to wait on others to jumpstart our peoples’ future, we have committed to creating technology centers at over 100 Urban League affiliates located in 35 states across our nation; centers where our folks learn to master the machinery, navigate the net and apply for jobs now; centers where the League can identify achievers in grade school and middle school who can be turned on to science, math and engineering; centers where mentors can steer these students to the right courses, monitor their grades and tutor them if they struggle academically. {These will be} Urban League centers where we match high-tech companies with promising youngsters early on so that when they graduate, they have an inside track on a {Silicon Valley career}.

Beyond academic achievement and the development of technological skills in the 21st Century, African Americans must trumpet homeownership. To become the masters of our economic destiny, we must seize entrepreneurial opportunities and invest in the stock market. To ensure political inclusion, we must leverage our political capital, participate fully in the system and dialogue with all parties to determine who will best accommodate our interests.

The 1970s were the watershed period in American history. Spurred by the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement, the nation's mainstream institutions - from the corporations to the colleges, from the unions to the universities - grudgingly began loosening their iron grip on white privilege and letting people of color into the game. Those who master the rules of the academic, technological and economic frontier will win the struggles of the 21st Century.

You, the Black college student, stand on the forefront of a new tomorrow. You are the reapers of the dream envisioned by your parents and grandparents. Dr. King’s promise will be fulfilled by your lives. You live in a time of immense excitement and challenge. Our community must build the foundation necessary for your success and achievement.  If you are ready and willing to seize the opportunities presented, and if we are committed to this mission, then at long last our people will be able to cross the great divide into economic prosperity and full participation in our nation’s bounty. Together we will create a brilliant future for all African-American children.

Hugh Price is the president of the National Urban League.