After decades of fighting for equality, civil rights leader and educator Bob Moses exhorted young people attending Princeton University's annual King Day celebration on Jan. 16 to remove segregation from a critical facet of public life where it still exists: education.
Using Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy as inspiration, Moses called on students to employ the U.S. Constitution to ensure educational equality for all Americans.
"We need a constitutional amendment that says every child in this country is entitled to a quality public school education," said Moses, the 2011-12 distinguished fellow in Princeton's Center for African American Studies.
This year's King Day event focused on the importance of education as a foundation for success throughout life. Speakers noted that widening economic gaps and other social disparities have led to failing public schools, high dropout rates and educational inequalities across the country.
Forgoing the traditional keynote speech, Moses gave a civics lesson of sorts, turning Richardson Auditorium into his classroom and the audience of about 400 local schoolchildren, University community members and the public into his pupils.
A New Perspective Jazz Band, a youth quartet from Ewing, N.J., also performed at the ceremony.
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