As a product of segregation, I so vividly recall mama, grandma, granddaddy, community activists, and educators sounding the alarm: “Education is the way up and out.”

I do so in honor of deceased grassroots advocates, Harry Lee Williams, Willie Mae Sanderson and Fannie Lou Hamer.

For if Harry Lee, Willie Mae, and Fannie Lou could do it, why can’t we?

We must encourage our children to value education and those involved in the educational enterprise to value our scholars.

Those of us who have been blessed with upward mobility due in part to our education, training, and the activism of Harry Lee, Willie Mae, Fannie Lou, and others owe our children what they gave us — advocacy and agitation.