On Thursday, Dec. 2, 11 African-American men will walk onstage at the Peace Center’s Gunter Theatre. All 11 are either current or former principals or vice-principals in South Carolina schools, and they all have long and distinguished careers in education. They’ll be talking about diversity issues, equity, and inclusion, not just in the school system but in businesses as well.
They’ll also be talking about their organization, BOLD Leadership Consultants. BOLD, which stands for Building Organizational Leadership & Development, is collaborative group of school leaders aimed at ensuring students reach proficiency of academic content while learning how to think critically and creatively, collaborate and communicate effectively, and adapt to challenges and complex problems.
This afternoon of conversation is the first in a series of talks organized by BOLD and the Peace Center’s Peace Voices program, which focuses on exploring important topics through lectures, guided panel discussions, film, and other artistic engagement.
BOLD came into existence informally about a year ago.
“There was an organic gathering of some male principals in the district,” says BOLD’s Edward Anderson, former principal of Tanglewood Middle School. “I was transitioning out of my role as a principal in the Greenville County Schools to the United Way, and a few of the guys got together to celebrate the transition.”
As the men celebrated, they realized they were in a rare situation.
“In that space, we realized that never had we had that level of Black male professionals,” Anderson says, “because Black male educators only make up 2% of the overall education workforce in America. And we just continued to meet.”
They decided to form BOLD after they saw some startling statistics from Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities.
“Harvard and Johns Hopkins had done lots of research that showed that if an elementary Black student had a Black male educator, then there was a 39% chance more likelihood of them graduating high school and going to college. And yet we don’t see many of us in the field. So we wanted to create a space where other Black male professionals could learn some of the skills to continue their upward mobility.”
The idea for a series of talks about inclusion, diversity and other issues came from some online conversations that the members of BOLD had with various special guest speakers.
“In the midst of developing BOLD, one of the things we began doing virtually was having these BOLD conversations with African-American educators from across the country that we were particularly interested in,” says BOLD’s Damon Qualls, principal of Monaview Elementary School. “We wanted to ask them questions specific to serving in leadership capacities as an African-American male, talking about things like work-life balance, and keeping family a priority, all while trying to lead and lead well.”
Eventually, BOLD organized an in-person conversation at the Peace Center, and a partnership with Peace Voices was born.
“The event was so impactful that the Peace Center knew that that was something that they wanted to continue, and reproduce,” Qualls says. “So after working with the executives there, we partnered with Peace Voices, and now we will be able to have these BOLD conversations in person.”
Currently, BOLD is planning one speaking event per quarter with different respected African-American educators.
“As corny and cliché as it sounds, we wanted to become the change that we sought,” Anderson says. “We wanted to see that change so we became the change agent. So therefore we’re showing up and doing those things very outwardly in the community to show that Black men are positive figures in the community.”
Want to go?
What: Peace Voices introducing BOLD
When: Thursday, Dec. 2
Where: Gunter Theatre (Peace Center), 300 S. Main St, Greenville
Tickets: Admission is free, register at peacecenter.org
