Rev/Dr. Anika Whitfield Writes a Letter to the Governor of Arkansas: Return Our Public Schools to Us!
Rev/Dr. Anika Whitfield wrote the following letter to newly re-elected Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas about the failed state takeover of the Little Rock School District, whose only purpose was to take away any democratic control of the district’s public schools by its residents. Dr. Whitfield is both a podiatrist and a minister, so she is Rev/Dr.
Rev/Dr. Whitfield is included in my new book “Slaying Goliath” as a hero of the Resistance to Privatization. She stands up to the Governor and the Waltons, who think they own the state as their private plantation. She shows time and again that one person can make a difference; one person can organize Resistance; one person can speak out for justice and demand it and eventually they will be heard.
Governor Hutchinson,
Two days prior to being sworn in for your second and final term as Governor of Arkansas, KATV-7 interviewed you and captured you sharing this quoted statement:
“He said, ‘Well, I have to look forward to the swearing in, just to have that mark where you have another 4 years to serve the people of this state. But also, it’s just affirming to know that they said you’ve had 4 years, we think you’ve done a good job, we want you again.'”
Sadly, we, the LRSD community, do not have the same assessment of your leadership. Good is not the adjective we would use. We have experienced four years of you serving as a the leader of an evil, politically and economically driven abduction and seizure of the LRSD our local, political, and economic power. Rather than serving The People of Little Rock, you have reverted to enslaving us, keeping tax paying residents from our local ability to provide our children, our schools, our neighborhoods and community with the type of compassion, protection and oversight needed to protect our beloved community from the violence we have been forced to endure at the control of your political, economic, and racial whips and lynching.
And, Little Rock is not the only city suffering from your style of leadership. Pine Bluff, and several other AR Delta cities can testify to the same or similar abuses at the control of your hands.
We have had enough!
The insurrection of your violent and abusive leadership is coming. Your violent actions CONTINUE READING: Rev/Dr. Anika Whitfield Writes a Letter to the Governor of Arkansas: Return Our Public Schools to Us! | Diane Ravitch's blog
