The Continuing Challenge of Racial Conflicts and Crises: Focusing on Education as a Solution

In this first-person paper, educator Dr. Lionel Brown takes a sweeping look at the racial crises that have erupted in his home city of Cincinnati during his lifetime, and proposes that education is the only real, long-term way of addressing and disrupting the repeating pattern of violence. He highlights a selection of current and proposed educational initiatives. His perspective is unique, as he was a student at the University of Cincinnati (UC) when the race riots of the 1960s took place, and--after a long career in the city's educational system as a teacher and administrator--he was again at the University as a faculty member when racial violence erupted in 2001. As he struggled to help his graduate students in UC's unique College of Education Urban Education Leadership program find a deeper understanding of the events unfolding around them, he was profoundly struck by the similarities in conditions from the 1960s to 2001.