LESAProject

During the same years the Pittsburgh Steelers were building "The Steel Curtain," America was building a defense for dropouts and push-outs in urban schools.

Those years saw the high school dropout rate for African-American males climb to an alarming high. There was a crisis because of a lack of presence of role models. Organizations like the National Urban League got involved in education, mainly to help reduce the dropout rate in urban communities.

Defenses needed to be built in American education. Young men needed to be herded off the streets and back into the classrooms. The legislation that would fund the dropout prevention programs, which was America's defense for an emerging problem, was called the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA).

As the project director of a Houston Area Urban League ESAA project, I was told to hire four strong men who could help find the dropouts and encourage them to return to high school, and to identify those who were potential dropouts.

I found four good men to implement the project. One of them, I distinctly remember, was a relative of Dwight White, a def...

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