November 16, 2009
Education is a Civil Right

The academic achievement gap you read about relative to the achievement differences between white and black students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools is, in reality, a result in the disparity (difference in treatment, resources, support, quality teachers, facilities, expectations, etc,) in educational opportunities inherent in the school district.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People under the progressive leadership of President Benjamin Jealous and the affiliates chapters from coast to coast are calling this opportunity to learn gap the most pressing civil right issue of today.

The Pittsburgh Branch of the NAACP has been out front in addressing these issues at monthly public hearings of the school district.   We have done our homework and we have tried to address this issue in the forum that should have clearly articulated our message and dissatisfaction regarding the treatment of African American children in the school district.

Now we need you to help our children and come out and learn what we must do collectively as church leadership and congregations, community organizations, parents, students, activists, and NAACP members to stop the kind of apartheid education our children are receiving.

We plan to demonstrate WEEKLY in Oakland at Pittsburgh School District Administrative Building in response to the failure of the District to give every student an opportunity to learn.   Starting Monday, November 16, 2009 we will be marching around the administration building located on Bellefield Streets in Oakland.   We will do this every Monday starting at 5:00 pm for 7 weeks (Joshua 6: 15-19).

 It is our objective to expose, challenge and address discriminatory educational practices that are taking place in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.   Such practices as:

·         Recommendations to close many of the schools in the African American community

·         Re-segregation of schools and individual school programs

·         Misappropriation of monies in ways that do not support our children

·         Suspension of African American students without due process

·         The placement and concentration of uncertified teachers in schools with high proportions of African American students

For more information please call the NAACP Pittsburgh Unit 412-471-1024.

November 18, 2009
NAACP Marches Against Pittsburgh Board of Education
PITTSBURGH -- Local residents expressed extreme unhappiness about what they call disparity in their schools.
The NAACP gathered Monday to hold hands and pray before they marched around the Pittsburgh Board of Education.
Officials from the NAACP said the achievement gap between white and black students is a reality and that moving students from Peabody to Westinghouse is segregation.
“It seems that we’re back to segregation. Here we are since Brown V. The Board of Education, which was to take segregation out of the school,” said one concerned member. “As we look at the city now, we’re segregated in the school district because all the kids are in certain areas. We’re just against the resegregation of the schools.”

About a half dozen people joined Monday’s NAACP tonight, which is slated as the first of seven marches that are expected to take place every Monday.