Miseducation Negro/African American Public Schools Policies Evaluated By Congress

After completing the sixth grade in Stamford, Connecticut, I was promoted to Cloonan Junior High School and for the remainder of my public school career my education deteriorated. When I look back, I realize that many of my teachers in Junior and High School were inferior educators because of their policies toward people of color. Their policies kept them from preparing their Negro/African American students for good positions in our society.

These teachers had low expectations for people of color and everybody knew it. The Stamford public schools would place Negro/African Americans students in classes that would marginalize their potential. The other students were placed in classes that would maximize their potential and would groom them to become United States Senators, lawyers, doctors, educators, etc. Ask former Senator Joseph Lieberman about the Stamford public school policy for people of color. Former United States Senator, Joe Lieberman was my high school classmate and President of my class, but because he and the other students in his elite classes were separated from the people of color, I never was able to talk to him about anything. The Stamford public schools saw to this. It was a set up! This is the Stamford Scandal. This scandal has historical significance. It is time to pull the covers off of this scandal and others like it. 

I am requesting that past public schools policies for people of color in Stamford and elsewhere throughout the United States be evaluated. The United States Congress can provide the American people with an official report on how these kinds of public school policies have impacted American life during the last five decades. It is my belief that these public school policies have contributed to the deterioration of the African American community.

An Army friend of mine told me that the guidance counselors in the Boston public schools encouraged people of color to seek position in the trades and that college was not an option for them. My friend said they discouraged people of color from applying for entrance to the many fine colleges and universities in Boston. My friend told me that he was disheartened by the Boston public schools policies toward people of color throughout his public school career. 

I think that the Boston public school policies toward people of color hindered my Army friend from becoming a successful citizen and caused him and others like him to lose their full potential in life. My Army friend struggled with alcohol for many years, as did I and other people of color in the United States. I believe that the public school policies against people of color contributed to this kind of destructive behavior.  We believe that we were intentionally cheated out of our full potential in life.

My Army friend told me that he believed that the Boston public schools had designed the system for people of color to fail. I believe that a full evaluation of these public schools policies against people of color would reveal why African Americans have changed from being a constructive community to a destructive community. The Stamford, Connecticut public school policies for people of color prevented me from becoming an accomplished artist, although I eventually taught myself how to be an artist without any encouragement from anyone.  My Army friend was unable to capture his true talents.  I think that this is a tragedy.

Today millions of Whites feel superior to African Americans because of past public school policies for people of color. I see evidence of this every day. These white people know that they were privileged to get a better education then their African American counterparts. These white people went to school with people of color so now they apply those same policies to hiring practices and promotions, deceptive African American history and so on. 

The public school policies for people of color in the past reinforced the already existing societal policies for people of color. An official study by the United States Congress would help all Americans to understand why we are still struggling with race related problems in the United States.

I am imploring that the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Museum of African American History & Culture and other concerned Americans to understand the full magnitude of what I am expressing in this message. The American people deserve an official explanation of how those public school policies in the past have affected life as we know it in the United States. •