Justice Rising: Reflections from the 2026 Color of Education Summit
Earlier this month, nearly 600 students, educators, researchers, policymakers, and community leaders gathered in Raleigh and online for the 2026 Color of Education Summit. As co-chair, I had the honor of helping shape this year’s theme, Justice Rising: Repairing, Restoring, Resisting. I also had the joy of moderating conversations with our keynote speakers.
Marley Dias, who founded #1000BlackGirlBooks at age 11, reminded us that book bans and narrow definitions of literacy shrink what young people are allowed to imagine. For her, imagination is not extra. It is how children learn to lead, empathize, and picture a freer world before it exists.
Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom told us the future has a past. Progress was never automatic. It was built by organized people, and it has to be built again. Her words stayed with me: “power with compassion is a social movement.”
The students were among the strongest voices in the room. The Bridge Builders, high schoolers from Georgia and Durham, shared youth participatory action research from their summer journey through Civil Rights history.
That is why Color of Education matters to me. It brings research, lived experience, history, and community wisdom into the same room, and it treats young people as leaders, not subjects. Justice requires us to understand how we got here and to use our power to shape what comes next.
Thank you to Dr. Deanna Townsend-Smith and the Flood Center team for your profound vision and commitment to our children. See you October 1 to 2, 2027.
