(Our Time Press will be covering this initiative in the next issue)

President Barack Obama signs the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans Executive Order in the Oval Office, July 26, 2012. Standing behind the President, from left, are: Patricia Coulter, CEO National Urban League of Philadelphia; Rep. Danny Davis, D- Ill.; Reverend Al Sharpton; Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President of University of Maryland Baltimore College; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; Benjamin Jealous, President of the NAACP; Ingrid Saunders- Jones, Chair of the National Council of Negro Women; Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa.; Kaya Henderson, Chancellor of DC Public Schools; and Michael Lomax, President of the United Negro College Fund.
Cong. Ed Towns’ Response: “This latest effort by the Obama Administration to directly address the lagging educational outcomes by African Americans is greatly needed to ensure that gains made during the civil rights era are not completely eroded.”
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).