Don C. Locke Symposium

2021 Keynote Address by Preeminent Scholar, The Dreamkeepers Author and National Academy of Education President Gloria Ladson-Billings

The 3rd Annual Don C. Locke Multicultural and Social Justice Symposium featuring National Academy of Education President Gloria Ladson-Billings originally scheduled for March 18 has been postponed until 2021. Sign up to receive updates about the symposium.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Time: TBD
Where: TBD
Featured Speaker: Gloria Ladson-Billings
Title of Talk: “It’s ALL de jure: Turning a Critical Eye on the Northern Strategy”
Synopsis of Talk: The standard narrative about school segregation draws a dividing line between the North and South and claims that the South engaged in a deliberate strategy of legal apartheid by establishing separate and unequal schools. On the other hand, the North was said to be a part of a de facto school segregation project that “just happened” to be segregated because of neighborhood segregation. This talk argues Northern complicity in ensuring that Black students would not be able to access quality education.

About Gloria Ladson-Billings

Gloria Ladson-Billings is the president of the National Academy of Education and the former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she retired in 2018. Her research examines the pedagogical practices of teachers who are successful with African American students. She is the author of the groundbreaking 1994 book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children and the critically acclaimed book Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms.

Can't Attend in Person? We'll Livestream Dr. Ladson-Billings' Talk.

Watch the Livestream

Other Sponsors

In addition to NC State's College of Education, other sponsors of the 2020 Don C. Locke Symposium follow:

Division of Academic and Student Affairs

Institutional Equity and Diversity

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

College of Design

College of Sciences

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

University Honors and Scholars

Don C. Locke and his wife Marjorie Locke

About the Don C. Locke Symposium

The NC State College of Education started the Don C. Locke Multiculturalism and Social Justice Symposium in 2018 to honor Don C. Locke, a longtime professor of counselor education at NC State. Locke also worked as director of diversity and multiculturalism at the University of North Carolina at Asheville until retiring in 2007. He passed away after a brief illness in 2016. He dedicated his professional life to the advancement of counseling and equity.

Previous Speakers

2019: James L. Moore III on Helping African American Male Students to Achieve

African American male K-12 students are underrepresented in advanced academic courses and in gifted and talented programs, including in predominantly black school districts and even when there are black teachers of those courses, said James L. Moore III, the vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at The Ohio State University. A reason why: teachers’ perceptions and expectations.

2018: Courtland Lee on How to Stay Sane During Insane Times

Courtland Lee, a professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Washington, D.C., talked about “Promoting Sanity in Insane Time” at the inaugural Don C. Locke Multiculturalism and Social Justice Symposium. "We are all basically dealing with collective and environmentally social trauma," Lee said. "So as a mental health professionals, it makes me think about what we can do. It’s our job to help people deal with trauma."