In my life, I have been a colored, a Negro, a black, an African American, and a person of the global majority.

This is my reflection as a colored girl.

The value of education.

Since 1885, the colored pioneers of my Gulf Coast community have made education a priority.

In fact, by 1900, 70% of the colored residents could read.

65% could read and write.

Education was the key for colored children to reach our full potential.

It was a tool for citizenship, leadership and to gain equality in American society.

Education empowered us to lift our brothers and sisters as well as ourselves.

When I was growing up, our schools were segregated.

Colored students attended schools with colored teachers.

Despite unequal funding, poor facilities, and fewer resources.

Our schools provided an environment of excellence through culture, curriculum and instruction.

I have no idea of what low expectations could feel like at school.

Our teachers believed we had unlimited potential, that we could learn and succeed, and that we could always rise above our current life situation.

Then on May 17th, 1954, in its landmark decision, Brown vs Board of Education, the Supreme Court declared that segregated schooling based upon race was unequal and unconstitutional.

But blending colored and white students into a single school didn't change people's minds about African-American stereotypes.

And Brown vs Board didn't require educators to treat students equally.

Many educators then and now believe that African Americans are culturally, intellectually, and morally inferior to white people.

They believe African American parents don't value education.

They have low expectations for the achievement of African American students, and African American boys have been victims of racial disparity when it comes to discipline.

As a result, African American students are put into lower level classes, overwhelmingly placed in special education classes, and denied access to gifted classes.

In the 1980s, our own children's abilities and merit were denied in their desegregated schools.

If the children of two middle class African-American parents, both holding graduate degrees, were not given opportunities for an equal education.

What happens to all the other African American children?

The educational system is supposed to provide equal opportunity for all students, so that their abilities and talents can be recognized and nurtured.

Where I, a colored girl, was empowered through my education Many African American students are disempowered in schools today.

Equal education remains ideal and not a reality for many students of color.

Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.