Robert Moses to Lead Forum

Civil Rights Leader and Educator to Lead Forum at Williams

http://www.iberkshires.com/new/story.php?story_id=36225

September 23, 2010

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Civil rights leader and educator Robert Moses
will lead a discussion about quality education on Wednesday, Sept.
29, at 7:30 p.m. at Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on the Williams College campus.

Some historians consider Moses to be the most influential leader of
the civil rights movement after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. As one of
the leaders of SNCC, Moses directed the voting rights campaign in
Mississippi, which culminated in Freedom Summer in 1964 and
eventually led to the historic Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Moses was born in Harlem, N.Y. After graduating from Harvard
University with a degree in philosophy, he taught algebra for three
years before fully committing to the civil rights movement. He worked
for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and in 1961
he joined the Freedom Riders.

After teaching in Tanzania for six years, Moses returned to Harvard
in 1976 to complete a Ph.D. in philosophy. He was awarded a MacArthur
"genius" grant in 1982 and later founded the Algebra Project, an
innovative program for teaching algebra to disadvantaged children
that uses experiential learning.

Recently Moses and other prominent educators have initiated a
national campaign to build support for a constitutional amendment to
guarantee a quality education for all American children. His visit to
Williams and the northern Berkshires will kick off a national tour of
campuses and communities. The goal is to foster creative
conversations about what constitutes a quality education and how it
might be achieved.

The public forum on Sept. 29 will include short workshops on various
issues related to quality education, school reform, and democracy.
The event is free, open to the public, and sponsored by the Center
for Community Engagement at Williams. For more information contact
Stewart Burns at sburns@williams.edu.

.