Cheryl Brown Henderson served as this year’s keynote speaker for Grand Valley State University’s Martin Luther King Day of commemoration.
Henderson was one of three daughters of the late Rev. Oliver L. Brown, who in the fall of 1950 along with 12 other parents in Topeka, Kansas, led by attorneys for the NAACP, filed suit on behalf of their children against the local Board of Education. Her sister, Linda, was at the center of case that rejected racial segregation in American schools.
“My father died early on, just seven years after the Brown decision. But I wonder what his activism would have been like had he lived, and I think about the loss of Dr. King and what would have happened had he lived, because these are men that plant seeds that we’re still watering and nurturing to this day," she said.
Henderson has carried on her family’s legacy, serving as the founding President of the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research, as well as owning an educational consulting firm. In her keynote address, she acknowledges the past year of protests towards social justice, saying the fight for equity, specifically in education is far from won.
“The suggestion that United States history should not be taught truthfully is a red herring. All of this is about distracting us from the reality of what needs to happen today," she said when talking about the debate regarding Critical Race Theory.
Henderson has two decades of experience in political advocacy, public policy implementation and federal legislative development. She, along with fellow speaker Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist, put the importance of voting at the forefront of discussions, saying voices need to be heard.
