Continuing a life’s work
MEA-Retired member Dr. Cleorah Scruggs-DeBose has been promoting the importance of diversity in education since her early days as a Flint teacher in 1970 — and she’s certainly not stopping now.
“The movement for justice is a life’s work, so I’m not done yet,” she says.
Despite political attacks against diversity, equity and inclusion, Scruggs-DeBose continues her activism and leads the non-profit National Multicultural Diversity Day & Institute (NMDI) which organizes cultural events and celebrations in Flint.
Children build self-esteem and understanding when they see diverse cultures represented in classrooms, she says. “It challenges the myths and stereotypes that sometimes people hear and believe.”
This summer as an elected delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly in Denver, she introduced a measure urging support of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gutted key provisions of the landmark civil rights legislation.
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free,” she said, quoting famed civil and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
In 1993, Scruggs-DeBose persuaded thousands of delegates at the NEA RA to adopt every third Monday in October as National Multicultural Diversity Day — which remains on the calendar more than 30 years later.
She shares motivation to keep going in the work by routinely sprinkling her dialogue with quotes from human rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (“The time is always right to do what is right.”)
But her own words, drawn from 50 years of experience and struggle, also serve to inspire.
“We don’t need anybody to get discouraged, even though that’s the easiest thing to do. We need everybody to keep your spirits high, stay engaged, keep striving and doing. Don’t stop in the middle of the tunnel; keep going to the light.
“We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.”
Read all of the stories in our special report, ELECTIONS MATTER >> by Brenda Ortega, MEA Voice Editor:
