Library Square
100 River Market Ave, Little Rock
AR 72201
Join us for our 2021 “Hybrid” Forrest Rozzell Lecture with Dr. Charlotte Parham!
Thursday, November 4th, 2021.
A Revisit to W.E.B. Dubois Truth, Knowledge, and Sympathy in Public Schools
Brown vs. The Board of Education was the historic Supreme Court ruling that made racially segregated schools illegal. Desegregation was an important and necessary time in American history, but it was difficult for all involved. White teachers were unprepared to deal with teaching children who were deemed inferior. Black families were hesitant to entrust their child’s education to an unwelcoming environment. These issues of the 1950s strangely find themselves as relevant discussions in 2021.
For schools systems to provide safe, rigorous, and optimal environments where all students can succeed, there was and still is a need to address the school systems’ social systems. This system involves the human mindset and perspective of both teachers and families. The sociologist W.E. B. DuBois (1935) recognized the complexity of desegregation, positing that effective changes to the social systems must involve three critical components: truth, knowledge, and sympathy. This lecture revisits Dubois’s essential elements of truth, knowledge, and sympathy; and discusses how those components can provide a foundation for equitable education systems.
For more than 20 years, Charlotte R. Green Parham has been an educator in the Arkansas community. Dr. Parham served as an elementary teacher, gifted specialist, principal, and district administrator. She is a national consultant and author who currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies at the University of Central Arkansas. Her research focuses are systems of equity, academic achievement gaps, school readiness, and disruptive innovation.
Dr. Parham is the executive director for Arkansas Imagination Library, the state’s affiliate for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library book gifting program. She is also the founder and CEO of Strategic Inc., a consulting firm that partners with schools and various organizations to support areas of equity and literacy.
The 2021 AEA Forrest Rozzell Lecture will be held both in person and online. Doors open at the Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock, the lecture will begin at 6:00 pm, following a reception with boxed heavy appetizers. This hybrid event will qualify for Professional Development Credits.
