Letters to the Editor: Feb. 26, 2014

Cultural Leadership’s impact

I want to thank Gene Carton for his comments (letter to the editor, Feb. 5) regarding our award-winning high school and new middle school programs. Cultural Leadership was created in 2004 to address serious segregation and social injustices here in St. Louis. The goal was to train young persons to be the civil rights leaders we need to solve these issues. 

Ten years later, we have trained more than 220 students to be “troublemakers of the very best kind,” change agents willing to stand up and speak out against injustices. Two evaluations, available on our website, have demonstrated that we create young leaders passionate about changing the world. They show that these young people are engaged in their high schools, college campuses and communities. 

Today, our alumni are speaking out against injustices, serving as allies, and leading and creating organizations that promote diversity and inclusion.

For example, they have created reading programs to close the achievement gap. They have led their high schools to join the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate initiative. They have spoken out about the segregated and unequal education that exists, locally in the Post Dispatch (“School Swap: Inequalities in Our Schools,” April 2013) and nationally on Nickelodeon (“Black, White and Brown vs Board of Education: A Return to Segregated Schools,” Feb. 11).

We agree that our broken world would benefit from more programs aimed at eliminating racial polarity. We, along with several other organizations in St. Louis, strive to do this thoroughly and successfully one student at a time.

Holly Ingraham, Executive Director of Cultural Leadership