Henry Louis Gates Jr. Quotes

In the early 1970s in Atlanta, I attended what had formerly been an all-white school but had become a black school after integration and white flight. Perhaps because of this, the teachers created a curriculum that included a focus on African American literature and history year-round, not just in February.

I was bused to a school in Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn in 1972. I was one of the first black kids in the history of the school.

I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.

The abolition of the separate school system in the south raises serious practical problems.... We face the abolition of the public school system. Boldness is essential but wisdom is indispensable.

I knew there were calls for diversity in children's lit, but you always wonder as a person of color, how diverse is too diverse?

If our culture is so often readily and easily appropriated, imagine what happens when we embrace our full blackness and know that our contributions are just as important to the shaping of the country and, more broadly, the world.

I wanted to identify that the black experience is American experience.

The greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency.

A core part of Teach For America's mission has always been affecting positive change in the traditional public school system.

I believe public education is the new civil rights battle and I support charter schools.

Latinos care about education, yes, so we need reform, not just money.

I believe we need a national amendment which will guarantee every child in America the promise of not just an equal education but a high-quality equal education.

I am a longtime, rabid fan of Jonathan Kozol.

If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals.

I believe the government should ensure all children are provided with a good education.

The promise of equal educational opportunity envisioned by the Brown decision remains unfulfilled.

Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.

My concern for education in New Mexico has always been there. I'm one of those kids that struggled through school, and I feel like I fell through the cracks.

When someone has the desire to go to school and has the ability but can't get into our schools, that's wrong. Education drives the economy and the quality of life.

Governor Romney has said nothing about preschool. I think that giving the poorest kids in America wonderful preschool, and three years of it, starting when they are two-and-a-half, is absolutely crucial.

Progress for black Americans depends on good schools because education is the last great equalizer.

Teach For America was built on the idea that our best hope of reaching 'One Day' is to have thousands of alumni use their diverse experiences and ideas to effect change from inside and outside the education system.

We're failing our children with education, we're failing our environment.

Teach For America is working hard to be one significant source of the leadership we need.

I think the way to understand Teach for America is as a leadership development program.