Dr. Terrence Roberts Intro (Simeon HS, April 29, 2009)

Good Evening & Welcome,

My name is Sonjanita Moore and I am a Program Associate with Facing History. It is my distinct honor and privilege to introduce our guest speaker this evening, Dr. Terrence Roberts. Dr. Roberts' visit with us this week is part of the Choices in Little Rock Initiative, a partnership between Facing History & the Chicago Public Schools. I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to thank Simeon Career Academy, and especially Ms. Sterling, Ms. Bryant and Ms. Thornton for their helping to coordinate and host the event this evening. Facing History would also like to thank the many teachers, students and administrators with the Chicago Public Schools that have made this partnership a success. Since 2005, Facing History has brought the Choices in Little Rock curriculum to over 200 teachers representing more than 100 schools !

In addition to helping implement the Choices in Little Rock curriculum in these schools, we have had the pleasure of bringing Dr. Roberts into a number of classrooms across the city. Dr Terrence Roberts is a long-time friend of Facing History and is a member of the advisory board of our Los Angeles office, but many of us here tonight only know Dr. Roberts as one of the brave students of Little Rock, Arkansas who dared to be one of the first African American students to integrate Central High School. But he is far more than a figure in a history book or a person in a documentary.

Dr. Terrence Roberts is a son, a father, a grandfather, but he is also a pioneer, a resister, an upstander...one of the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement who, according to President Barack Obama, proved that "ordinary people can do extraordinary things." He stands as a living representation of the kind of dignity and courage that makes America great. Before we bring him out let's take a moment to reflect back to 1957...to understand the circumstances that helped to make Dr. Terrence Roberts the man that he is today.