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I was supposed to be writing about the tea party today, but the Spirit led me in new direction.
On Wednesday evening I attended a small gathering at the West Charlotte Recreation Center. Just five people, in fact.
They met there to lay the groundwork for a new citizen-led organization that they hope will become a powerful force for good in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. They’re calling the group the Save Our Schools Initiative, or SOS.
They have their work cut out for them.
Not because the people involved are deficient in any way. Rather, it’s because the task they seek to accomplish – rallying African Americans around schools and educational issues – is daunting at best.
White parents, rightly so, turn out in legions when they have aught with the local school board. Yet we as blacks offer scant resistance when that same board moves in ways we deem hurtful to our collective interests.
And we wonder why our issues so often go ignored.
I have watched Vilma Leake over the years attempt to organize rallies or marches in protest of various school board actions. I’ve seen bigger black turnouts during happy hour at Therapy Café.
Allow me to vent this once.
One of my biggest frustrations as editor of Qcitymetro.com concerns the level of reader engagement in the stories we print concerning schools. A Q&A this week with school board Chair Eric Davis had, at last check, just two comments. But let us print the slightest new development in the Jinwright saga and we practically have to shut down our comments section. One of our Jinwright stories has drawn 1,080 responses.
But what about our children?
Levester N. Flowers, one of the SOS organizers, said the group’s overarching mission is simple – to ensure that African American children, children of color and those who live in poor neighborhoods get the same quality education that wealthier CMS students receive.
“Just because you live in a neighborhood where the schools are ok doesn’t mean that the schools are ok in every neighborhood for our students of African American descent,” he told me after the meeting. “We’re going to have to get back to the basics of, when you’ve done it to the least of us, then you’ve done it to me.”
Flowers (photo below) said he also wants to see the community throw more support behind Joyce Waddell and Richard McElrath, the school board’s only African American members.
About 41 percent of all students enrolled in CMS last year were African American. Another 16 percent were Latino. More than half of all black males who enter CMS never graduate.
With so much at stake, can we afford business as usual?
Imagine an organization so empowered that no school board would ever dream of appointing a superintendent without its blessings. Imagine a group so politically active that no politician would dare run for local office without seeking its endorsement.
Imagine if, from this small seed, something truly amazing took root.
The next SOS organizing meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 19, at the West Charlotte Recreation Center (2222 Kendall Drive).
For more information call Levester N. Flowers at 704-968-3391, or email lnf_2000@yahoo.com.
While you’re at it, feel free to copy this link and email it to friends, co-workers and church members.
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