Virginia Union Hosts Educators’ Summit On Systemic Barriers

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Virginia Union University recently hosted an online summit that attracted  more than 250 educational leaders who participated in a candid three-hour discussion on systemic barriers and emerging threats to educational equity.

Participants referred to the Southern Education Foundation’s recent trailblazing “Miles to Go” report, which examines the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education enacted about 70 years ago. The report provides data on recent legislative developments that threaten diversity initiatives and programs that support underrepresented students.

The report argues that racial disparities in education do not arise from an “achievement gap” but are actually symptoms of opportunity gaps. Many reports place too much responsibility for dire outcomes on students and their families, rather than the systems that launch and perpetuate opportunity gaps, the trailblazing report argues.

University of Southern California Provost Dr. Shaun Harper, the keynote speaker said, “You cannot be selectively horrified. You have to be equally outraged by the racism that poisons campus culture and the racism that shows up in how we exclude Black stories, scholarship, and success from the academy.”

Virginia Union organized the summit with Rice University’s Center for the Study of HBCUs and Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL), an emerging coalition that aims to safeguard and advance Black educational opportunity during a pivotal moment in American education.

Dr. Roderick L. Smothers, executive vice president and interim provost at Virginia Union, underscored the institution’s forward-looking mission at the recent online summit.

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“We are not simply preparing students to succeed in systems as they are,” Smothers said. “We are preparing them to lead the transformation of those systems.”

Attorney Raymond C. Pierce, president and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation and the author of the “Miles to Go” report, pointed to the parallels between post-Brown v. Board educator displacement and current threats. Pierce told online participants at the recent meeting that what began as state-level attacks on diversity programs has evolved into federal-level actions that could potentially defund non-compliant institutions.

Clinton College President Dr. Archinya Ingram and Huston-Tillotson University President Dr. Melva K. Wallace shared innovative approaches to recruitment, retention, and campus transformation. “I want the kid with the hoodie to see himself here,” Wallace said.

The summit also featured insights from veteran HBCU leader, Dr. Jimmy R. Jenkins Sr., as well as K-12 representatives Dr. Everett B. Ward, and Superintendent Jermall Wright of the Little Rock School District, who highlighted the challenges facing Black students in systems “that weren’t built for them.”