Holding fast to dreams

"Born in Birmingham, Alabama, once known as the "most segregated city" in the United States, Freeman Hrabowski discovered the courage to stand up for civil rights and educational opportunity when he heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call and joined the Children's March in 1963. Along with other protesting students, 12-year old Freeman spent five terrifying days in jail. But the march, the arrests, and the experience, led to desegregation in Birmingham and a life's journey for Freeman Hrabowski. In [Title], Dr. Hrabowski relates his experiences with the civil rights movement in Birmingham as a child, his relentless desire for a quality education, his development as a leader in higher education, and the ways these experiences led to the development of programs and policies supporting inclusive excellence and educational success for African Americans. Dr. Hrabowksi details the lessons about education he drew from his own experiences as a student, faculty member, and administrator. He relates the circumstances in which he was able to draw on those lessons to develop the most successful program in the United States - the Meyerhoff Scholars Program -- for educating African Americans who go on to earn doctorates and M.D.-Ph.D.s in the natural sciences and engineering. And, lastly, he turns to a discussion of how important it is for research universities the seek inclusive excellence, work across the educational spectrum from Kindergarten through graduate school to ensure student success"--