Office for Civil Rights, Student Leaders to Recognize Education Equity, Legacy of Civil Rights Act of 1964

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, along with officials from the White House and Smithsonian Institution, will engage with high school students from New York City and Washington, D.C., in recognizing education equity and the enduring legacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The event will begin Monday morning at the Education Department, then move that afternoon to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

Organized by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the day’s activities will pay tribute to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in all programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.

Among the young people expected to attend are students from the New York Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council, New York Urban Ambassadors, the Close Up program, the Washington, D.C., Schools Without Walls, as well as winners of the Princeton Prize on Race Relations.