U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will visit the Columbia Heights Educational Campus, Bell Multicultural High School at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, to give remarks at the 5th Annual Back to School with The HistoryMakers program. Duncan will discuss the importance of The HistoryMakers work to raise awareness of the achievements of African Americans in their local communities and the need to bring resources and influential African Americans into schools to motivate youth.
Duncan will also briefly discus the accomplishments of The HistoryMakers being honored at the event:
George Curry is a renowned journalist from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who wrote for Sports Illustrated, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the Chicago Tribune. He also served as editor of Emerge magazine for 10 years.
Ronald Jewell is an entrepreneur from Newark, New Jersey, who was a father and husband when he graduated from Central High School in Goochland County, Virginia. In 1972 Jewell and his wife, Adrienne, started Jewell Industries, a residential and construction site cleaning service, which expanded to include commercial cleaning a year later. Eventually, on the request of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), he created the specifications for cleaning commercial properties.
The HistoryMakers—a national non-profit, research and educational institution—is the largest African American oral history collection of its kind. The HistoryMakers is committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans to educate the world about the struggles, determination and achievements of African American life, history and culture. The HistoryMakers shares its collection through The HistoryMakers Digital Archive, The HistoryMakers Education Institute, The HistoryMakers Speakers Bureau, live public programs and its interactive website.