Math teacher Robert Moses was a legendary figure during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. He was the courageous educator from New York who became an activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He’s best known for organizing the Black voter-registration efforts and the Freedom Schools made famous during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. This heroic educator’s revolutionary work, which was not without risk to life and limb, transformed the political power structure of entire communities.

Nearly forty years later, Robert advocated for yet another transformational change: the Algebra Project. Robert asserted that a deficiency in math literacy in poor neighborhoods puts impoverished children at an economic disadvantage.

Radical Equatioins by Robert Parris Moses describes the Civil Rights activist’s work during the 1960’s, and his philosophy about math literacy.

The deficiency makes students unable to compete successfully for jobs in the 21st century. This disenfranchisement, he declared, is as debilitating as lack of personal liberties was prior to the Civil Rights Movement. Robert’s solution was to organize people, community by community, school by school, to overcome the achievement gap. He believed this would give impoverished children the tools they need to claim their share of economic enfranchisement.

Robert described his philosophy in depth in his  book, Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project written with fellow Civil Rights worker Charles E. Cobb, Jr. The volume can be found easily and reasonably-priced on amazon. A fascinating read for anyone who is interested in Moses’s story, either past or present. A chapter about this remarkable teacher is also included in my second book, entitled Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor.  This book is also available on amazon; click on this link to view: Chalkboard Heroes.