Rev. Jesse Jackson told Technology Access Foundation (TAF) Academy students to dream high and to break down the walls of race and gender inequality during an event on Monday.
“I look around the room and think that Dr. King would be so proud to see a group of multicultural and multiracial students sitting together at an event like this,” Jackson told the sixth through 12th-graders. “You are the American Dream and you can keep breaking down stereotypes by working hard in school and fighting for equality.”
Jackson’s appearance at the school was part of a tour through Western Washington where spoke about the need for minorities and women in high tech jobs in Seattle, calling it the “civil rights issue of the decade.”
“I believe this problem can be solved by copying TAF’s model, which is implementing STEM opportunities to students at schools,” he said.
Jackson was invited to speak by Trish Millines Dziko, executive director and founder of the Technology Access Foundation. Dziko helped start the academy in 1996 to bring STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to underrepresented populations in those fields, particularly students of color and girls. This desire came from Dziko’s own experience.
“After spending 15 years as a developer, designer and manager in the high tech industry, I found that despite tremendous growth, there were very few women and people of color working in the field,” she said. “I determined the best thing to do was to go fix the root of the problem, which was lack of access to STEM in public schools.”
Technology Access Foundation Academy was started in 2008 with a partnership between Federal Way Public Schools and the Technology Access Foundation. The academy is the only public school in Washington state that is co-managed by a nonprofit and a public school district, according to a district spokesperson.
“Our goal is to prepare our students to succeed when they go off to college and beyond,” Dziko said.
Dziko met Jackson when they were both invited to speak at the The Aspen Institute last August.
“He’s just like everyone else in the sense that he is relatable and shared a passion for equality with me,” Dziko said. “I wanted him to come out today because I don’t believe our schools talk about our past and history as a country enough.”
Jackson talked about the struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and his own experiences growing up in a different time.
“Back then, the different races got along by avoiding each other,” he said. “There were separate bathrooms, separate schools.”
Jackson invited the crowd of students, teachers and faculty to stand and repeat, “I am somebody, everybody, brown, black and white, we are all precious in God’s sight.”
The reverend also touched on the debates and rallies taking place around the country as a result of a grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American, in August. Jackson said he believes that the grand jury got it wrong and that Wilson should have been charged.
“They let the killer go,” he said. “This event falls into a pattern of bad behavior that we must fight to end. I am in complete support of any protestors, as long as they stay non-violent.”
Jackson mentioned the death of Rodney King, a construction worker who was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers in 1991.
“We need to stop the violence, stop the killing,” he said.
Jackson ended his speech by having the audience stand up, raise their hands and chant words, including, “stop gender bias” and “stop violence.”
“I love you,” Jackson said as he put down the microphone and walked over to a group of students, shaking their hands.
