THIS DAY IN HISTORY June 10, 1966: Ben Chester White Murdered

#tdih 1966 Ben Chester White, caretaker on a farm, was brutally murdered by the Klan in Natchez, Mississippi. White had lived on the same plantation all his life, the same land where his grandparents had been enslaved. He was not involved in the voting rights struggle. Instead, the Klansmen hoped that the killing of White would bring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the area and then they could kill him, too. #terrorism #teachoutsidetextbook

Award winning journalist Jerry Mitchell wrote a detailed description of the murder and trials in the Clarion Ledger, KKK killed Ben Chester White, hoping to lure & kill MLK.  Mitchell notes that the scheme failed, that the three Klansmen dodged convictions in the 1960s, but one of them, Ernest Avants, was convicted decades later in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison.

June 10, 1966: Ben Chester White Murdered

Benton Harbor’s Schools are America’s Schools! Tell Gov. Whitmer, Ed. Sec. Betsy DeVos, and the MEA!

by Nancy Bailey

Everything in the dark comes to the light. ~Former BHHS student. Across the country, citizens, parents, and educators have watched their public schools close due to underfunding and high-stakes student testing. These schools are predominately black, Hispanic, and poor. Public education with elected school boards are democratic institutions. Closing a school or school district, or […]

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via Benton Harbor’s Schools are America’s Schools! Tell Gov. Whitmer, Ed. Sec. Betsy DeVos, and the MEA!

School Funding On My Mind

janresseger

The failure of the school tax on the ballot last Tuesday in Los Angeles is the latest troubling story, but school funding has been an undercurrent in the news across the country in recent weeks.

Even in Massachusetts, where public education is relatively well funded, members of the New England Patriots published an op-ed in the Boston Globe to compare and contrast the funding in the schools where they visit. They have been paying attention to the school libraries: “We’ve read stories to elementary school students, sitting on carpeted floors in large libraries filled wall-to-wall with books and colorful seating areas. Yet we’ve also visited schools where we see a very different picture. Two weeks ago, we invited members of the Legislature to join us on a tour of Tracy Elementary School in Lynn. It was clear that Tracy’s principal, staff, and teachers are the school’s heart and soul, doing…

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