​We recently celebrated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther the King’s birth. We laud his life everday. I just finished Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life. Eig’s account of Dr. King’s early agitation in Montgomery made me admire the activist I strive to emulate even more. The description of the Montgomery Improvement Association’s (MIA) organized boycott of the city’s segregated buses is instructive for those wondering what “Black community” really means, and aspirational for those pining to realize what we want it to mean.

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Rev. Dr. King pastored, was solidly middle-class. Members owned cars and drove to work. Though they did not experience the everyday dehumanizing indignities bus riders were subjected to, they knew the sting of second-class citizenship as they traversed every other space throughout their separate and unequal lives. Their collective desire for respect as full humans coalesced them in a common struggle against tyranny. They were beautifully Black. Different and together.

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Those with cars drove the bus riders. MIA provided us an example of grassroots organizing—and our first rideshare system. This shared political action, this moment, brought diverse Black folks in communion.  The cars carried class, gender, color, denomination, education, and vocation differences in a coordinated struggle for collective justice. They were beautifully Black. Different and together.

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MIA succeeded in desegregating Montgomery’s bus system. However, full freedom for Black people is not yet won. Augusteenth. They were beautifully Black. Different and together.

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Centering Black Children in Education’s fourth annual conference explores Blackness in all of its shades. Interior designers recognize 134 shades of black. A search of images on Google offers 24. We know, however, Black folks—their experiences, their talents, their varied lives, their brilliances—cannot be captured in 134 shades or 24 images. Black folks are unquantifiable, boundless in beautiful Blackness.

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This year, we will discuss the multi-faceted presentations of Blackness in schools. How are Black folks’ intersecting and divergent identities, myriad struggles, diverse cultures, and limitless genius manifesting across the diaspora? What can we learn when we converse across sociocultural, demographical, economical educational contests? Come and learn about middle class parents’ school choices, the plights and pleasures of Black women leaders in higher education, the vibrancy of Black queer youth and educators, the stories of Black student activists striving for equity and justice in still segregated and unequal schools. We are not the same, yet we are bound together. We welcome proposals to examine, honor, and celebrate the vastness of Black experiences in Education. Explore your work, dreams, and research Centering Black Children in Education.

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Let us imagine an amalgam. Come and conjure a Black community devoted to an ideal of education for liberation. Though we represent a multiplicity of Black life, our shades of Blackness fade to one. Beautifully Black. Different and together.