Education Is the 21st-Century Liberator Black Leaders on
Education: UNCF's chief notes today's freedom struggle, 150
years after slavery. (Special to The Root) -- Continuing their
historical practice of working together to address issues of
concern to the African-American community, the NAACP, National
Urban League, United Negro College Fund and NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund are working cooperatively to improve
educational opportunities for all students. This week we will
run op-eds by the leaders of each organization that address a
crucial aspect of what it will take to prepare our young people
to succeed in life. Today: The president of UNCF addresses
college readiness and the gap in four-year-college graduation
rates. See previous essays in the series here. Jan. 1 marked the
150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. But has a
century and a half of progress lived up to the freedom for all
races that the proclamation and constitutional amendments that
followed seemed to augur? Two years