1954 Project To Award Five $1 Million Grants to Black Leaders in Education

The 1954 Project welcomes the next class of Luminary Award winners!

Five exemplary Black leaders in education will be honored on May 17 at the virtual 1954 Project Luminary Awards. This momentous occasion marks the third year in which the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education Group, also known as The CAFE Group, will award each awardee a $1 million-dollar grant.

This year’s Luminaries include Carmita Semaan, founder and CEO of Surge Institute; Alex Bernadotte, founder and CEO of Beyond 12; Reuben Ogbonna, executive director at The Marcy Lab School; Chris Chatmon, founder and CEO of Kingmakers of Oakland; and Brittany Young, founder and CEO of B-360. According to The CAFE Group, they all have made an incredible impact on our communities.

“This year we have the honor of hosting the awards on the 69th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling,” said Liz Thompson, 1954 co-founder and president of The CAFE Group, in a press release. “We are delighted to have Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and friend Nikole Hannah-Jones kick off this year’s celebration as a special guest.”

 

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With special guests such as Hannah-Jones, Academy and Grammy Award-winning artist and activist Common, and Helene Gayle, president of Spelman College, the upcoming awards ceremony represents how far the work has come. May 17 signifies the milestone decision of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools based on race was unconstitutional. It sparked the end of legalized racial segregation in U.S. schools, overruling the “separate but equal” principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case.

“I started my journalism career as an education reporter for the Raleigh News & Observer covering the majority-Black Durham Public Schools,” said Hannah-Jones, who is revered for her investigative work on the 1619 Project, per the release.

She added: “During those years, I saw the critical impact of race and class and the widespread consequences of the Brown vs. Board Supreme Court decision, so I understand the vital work that the 1954 Project is doing.”

To date, the 1954 Project has raised $35 million and granted more than $15 million to its Luminaries. The awards are funded through contributions from 1954 founders Don and Liz Thompson and other donors, including the Walton Family Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

“Every year, we continue to be impressed by the creative and collective genius of Black leaders in education. This year, we received over 400 applications from prospective Luminaries across the country, and we expect that number to grow over time,” said executive Don Thompson, founder of Cleveland Avenue L.L.C.