April 6, 2018
This week as we reflect on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, I wanted to share with you this video produced by the Obama Foundation and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance featuring Ron Brown College Preparatory High School students, some of whom are in our program, speaking with President Obama and Congressman John Lewis.
What an amazing experience to talk with two of the most significant living American leaders and advocates for racial justice and equality!
If you’ve been following this week’s media coverage around this anniversary as I have, it can be easy to feel as if we have made little progress in many aspects of the things that Dr. King fought to change. While there are many significant improvements in racial equality to highlight we also have to recognize how unequal things still are.
Toward the end of his life Dr. King focused much of his efforts around other aspects of racial inequality that were drivers of poverty, and yet fifty years later African Americans and other people of color still have enormous gaps compared to whites in rates of wealth, income, unemployment, college degrees, health, incarceration and many other important measures.
As I reflect on the work that still needs to be done, I am inspired by the opportunity CPE has to make a difference in addressing racial inequality here in D.C. We’ve tripled the number of students we serve in just the last five years, we have a strong base of generous and compassionate supporters, and we are proud to work with more than 400 volunteer mentors on a daily basis to help low-income D.C. students prepare for college and career success. We’ve achieved a lot – but we can do so much more.
Thank you for supporting CPE as we continue to promote economic mobility for D.C. students and bring us closer to having the type of community and country that Dr. King and so many others gave their lives for. I invite you to follow us on our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to stay up-to-date on our work in the community.
Khari Brown, CEO