With less than two weeks until the 2024 general election, Temple hosted various political officials at “Power Up,” a nationwide event series that focuses on advancement of educational and economic opportunities for Black Americans, in the Howard Gittis Student Center on Wednesday.
The Power Up summit is a series of events hosted by the White House Initiative for Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans. The summit included visits from the U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.
Pennsylvania State Rep. and Temple alumnus Malcolm Kenyatta, who represents part of Main Campus, and Anthony Bellmon, who serves the West Oak Lane and Olney neighborhoods, were also present. Kenyatta leads the Presidency Advisory Commission for the initiative.
“When the President asked me to chair this commission, it was without a doubt that we’re going to be in Philadelphia for one of these conversations,” Kenyatta told The Temple News. “Temple is such a great place to host this talk and the multiple panels and breakout sessions that we’re going to have.”
Speakers and panelists included directors and administrators in the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration and the Department of Transportation. The Temple Gospel Choir also performed at the event.
The “Whole of Government” panel, featuring U.S. Departments and advisors, overviewed the disparity of economic opportunities in racial equity and how different industries, like agriculture and small business, have to overcome barriers in accessibility of services and education to Black Americans.
“Several people have already pointed out the fact that education is the one thing that cannot be taken from us,” said Dewayne Goldmon, senior advisor for racial equity in the Department of Agriculture. “It’s one sure way to make sure that we can make permanent change and we can make constant improvement, because once you get it in here, it gets locked in.”
The White House initiative partnered with Temple’s Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative for the event, which works to provide job training and career readiness resources to eight area codes that surround Temple. They also partnered with Discovery Education, a digital platform for K-12 education.
The Presidency Advisory Commission is made up of 21 attorneys, professors, entrepreneurs, school superintendents and other government executives.
“[I planned] to use the leverage of this office and the resources to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, and greenest big city in the nation with access to economic opportunity for all,” Parker said in her speech. “This initiative, Representative Kenyatta and Bellmon, this is how we achieve access to economic opportunity for all and continue investment into the School District of Philadelphia, [Community College of Philadelphia], and our beloved Temple University.”
Philadelphia is the fifth host of the initiative’s multi-city series. It included two days of events, the first day at Samuel Fels High School and the second on Main Campus.
Previous Power Up events were held in Charleston, South Carolina in January, Denver in April and in Chicago in June. The initiative will host another event in Las Vegas in December.
“We heard from the Senator and others who are here — that’s really what these conversations have been about, to sort of demystify the work of a complex, big federal government and bring it down as local as we can,” Kenyatta said.
In the event’s closing remarks, panelists from the White House and other universities reflected on how Black history is preserved and taught in academic spaces and the eyes of the public.
“Black history is not just about feeling good or celebrating not being enslaved anymore,” said Andrea O’Neal, who works in the White House Domestic Policy Council. “It’s also about driving a very specific conversation in the space that you own, whether it’s tech, education, law, medicine, anywhere else.”
Sidney Rochnik and Nurbanu Sahin contributed reporting.
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