The Root: The Far-Reaching Teachings Of Russlynn Ali
Cynthia Gordy is the Washington reporter forThe Root.
President Barack Obama has frequently called education the most important civil rights issue of our generation. "There's a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools," he said at the 2009 NAACP convention, citing Brown v. Board of Educationand the Little Rock Nine. "It's because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's God-given potential."
Though it doesn't make headlines the way it did in the 1950s, that story is still being composed — and a black woman is wielding the pen. Russlynn Ali, the youthful, curly-haired assistant secretary of the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, oversees the enforcement of all anti-discrimination laws related to education. With broad jurisdiction that includes admissions and recruitment, student discipline, as well as classroom assignment and grading, she investigates schools and districts nationwide to ensure equitable conduct across race, gender, national origin
