Stan Salett (born April 6, 1936) is a civil rights organizer, national education policy advisor and creator of the

Upward Bound Upward Bound is a federally funded educational program within the United States. The program is one of a cluster of programs now referred to as Federal TRIO Programs, TRiO, all of which owe their existence to the federal Economic Opportunity Act ...

Program and helped to initiate Head Start. In the early 1960s Salett was an organizer for the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

(CORE) and helped organize the

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (commonly known as the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington) was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...

. He was the first director of education of the

Office of Economic Opportunity The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) was the agency responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs created as part of United States president Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society legislative agenda. It was established in 1964 a ...

, where the Head Start program was created. He co-founded the National Committee for Citizens in Education, dedicated to promoting parent and citizen involvement in schools. During President

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

administration he initiated the National Upward Bound program. While working in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

he served on the staff of all three

Kennedy brothers The Kennedy family () is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P ...

: President

Kennedy Kennedy may refer to: People * Kennedy (surname), including any of several people with that surname ** Kennedy family, a prominent American political family that includes: *** Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888–1969), American businessman, investor, ...

's Committee on Youth Employment, Attorney General

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yo ...

's President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Senator

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1962 to his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party and ...

's Presidential campaign in 1980. He was an active school board member in Maryland in the 1980s. During President Bill Clinton's transition he vetted candidates for Attorney General and Secretary of the Interior. In 2011 he published his memoir, ''The Edge of Politics: Stories from the Civil Rights Movement, the War on Poverty & the Challenges of School Reform''. He received the New England Education Opportunity Association's Claiborne Pell Award in 2013. Presently he is President of the Foundation for the Future of Youth, a division of the Eigen Arnett Educational and Cultural Foundation. He has developed special search engines to meet a variety of human needs such as the elimination of

human trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

, the improvement of school performance and the scarcity of the global water supply. In 2016 Salett has been involved in The Independent Media Institute study which evaluated the movement to privatize public education. It was revealed that, "… in the past two decades, a small group of billionaires – including News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch, who once called public schools an "untapped 500-billion-dollar sector" – have worked to assert private control over public education ...." Salett was presented with the 2017 Distinguished Graduate Award from Boston Latin School for his career to public service and public policy work. The Award is given each year to alumni exemplifying the Boston Latin School motto, ''sumus primi''. , he resides in Washington, DC, and Chestertown,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

with his wife Elizabeth. He has two sons, singer-songwriters

Peter Salett Peter Joseph Salett (born May 12, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known as a musician for his song "Heart of Mine" in the movie ''Keeping the Faith'', his song score for the 2006 film '' Down in the Valley'', and for co-writing ...

and Steve Salett, owner of Saltlands Studio in Brooklyn, New York and Reservoir in Manhattan.

References

External links

The Edge of PoliticsEigen Arnett Educational and Cultural FoundationThe Global Resource and DatabaseStan Salett NEOA Acceptance Speech
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salett, Stan Activists for African-American civil rights 1936 births Living people American education activists